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CONTENTS. 

PAG 

Publisher's Note 6 

Chapter I — The Bible — God's Message to Man . 7 
Chapter II — The Bible is a Text-Book of 

Religion ' 19 

Chapter III — The Bible is Inspired of God. .. 30 

Chapter IV— The Story of Our English Bible. . 40 

Chapter V — The Canon, and How Obtained. . 51 

Chapter VI — Baptists and the Bible 61 

Chapter VII — The Analysis of the Bible . . 70 

Chapter VIII — The Analysis of the Bible 

(continued) 83 

Chapter IX— How to Study the Bible 94 

Chapter X — An Example of Bible Study 103 

Chapter XI— The Bible in the Personal Life. . 113 
Chapter XII — Using the Bible in Christian 

Service 123 



A NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHERS. 



This book is published under the general instruc- 
tion of the Southern Baptist Convention, given to 
its Sunday School Board to prepare literature suit- 
able for use among the young people in the churches 
in their effort for self-improvement. And in issu- 
ing this volume the Sunday School Board is acting 
jointly with the Education Committee, which was 
authorized by the Southern B. Y. P. U. Convention, 
and appointed by its Executive Committee. 

The B. Y. P. U. work is based upon the motto, 
"Training for Church Membership. " The volume 
has as its purpose that which is fundamental in this 
training, training in the Book which is the basis of 
our faith and our teaching. The aim is to make the 
Bible a familiar book. 



6 



CHAPTER I. 



THE BIBLE— GOD'S MESSAGE TO MAN. 

"God, having of old time spoken unto the 
fathers in the prophets by divers portions and 
in divers manners, hath at the end of these 
days spoken unto us in his Son." Heb. 1: 
1,2. 

This little book has been begun with this 
quotation of Scripture because it reveals to 
us the fact that God had something that he 
wanted man to know. What he has said 
to man, we call God's message to him. 
When we come to think about it, there is 
nothing more natural than that God should 
want to communicate with men. God is a 
person. He created the people who are in the 
world. He made them in his own likeness 
and in his own image. Therefore they are 
persons. So we are not surprised that he 
has a message for them. That message is 
contained in the book that we call the Bible. 
In the second chapter of this book we shall 
study the purpose God had in view in giving 

(7) 



8 TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY /- , 

us the Bible. In this chapter we are going 
to note God's way of communicating with 
man. 

I. He Has Spoken in Nature. 

What is meant by this is that the creation 
round about us is one way that God has of 
expressing himself. In this way man can 
learn something of God. David said : "The 
heavens declare the glory of God; and the 
firmament showeth his handiwork." Psa. 
19: 1. Here David teaches us that man 
learns something of God from God's work in 
nature. Then Paul also says that the power 
and divinity of God are seen in his created 
world. "For the invisible things of him 
since the creation of the world are clearly 
seen, being perceived through the things that 
are made, even his everlasting power and 
divinity." Eom. 1: 20. That, of course, is 
true. 

But while from the things that God 
lias made man learns of the glory and power 
and divinity of God, still man does not learn 
the best part of the nature and character of 
God. Sin has so dulled the heart and mind 
of man that he does not read aright even all 
that GocJ really expresses of himself in that 



god's message to man 9 

way. The language spoken through God's 
created works is too much like hieroglyphics 
to man. It is at best only a few, one here 
and one there, who can read the message of 
God written on the stars. The result is that 
the worship through nature becomes the wor- 
ship of nature; and this is idolatry. The 
best part of God's nature and the real message 
that he wants the world to know are not com- 
municated to men through God's creation. 

II. He Has Spoken Through Conscience. 

Another way in which God speaks to man is 
through conscience. This we learn from 
Paul, who says : u For when the Gentiles that 
have not the law do by nature the things of 
the law, these, not having the law, are a law 
unto themselves; in that they show the law 
in their hearts, their conscience bearing wit- 
ness therewith, and their thoughts one with 
another accusing or else excusing them." 
Eom. 2 : 14, 15. I think it is plain from this 
that God does, to some extent, communicate 
with men through their consciences. But 
even here they cannot begin to know the most 
glorious things that God wants them to know. 
So we come to think of another way in which 
God has spoken to man. 



10 TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY 

III. He Has Spoken Through the 
Prophets. 

"God, having of old time spoken unto the 
fathers in the prophets, by divers portions 
and in divers manners." Heb. 1 : 1. Here 
is a distinct statement that God did speak to 
men through other men called prophets. 

A prophet is one who speaks for God. That 
is, God told certain men what he wanted them 
to tell to other men, and they delivered these 
messages that God gave to them. He did 
not just choose one man to be the bearer of 
all the messages that he had. He gave one 
portion of his message to one man, and an- 
other portion to another man, and so on. 
Then he had different ways of delivering his 
message to different men. 

We need not stop to go into detail about 
this. It is enough to know that this writer 
to the Hebrews is telling how God sent his 
message to the people in Old Testament times. 
Of course, these people learned a great deal 
more about the nature of God, and about 
what God wanted the people to do, than did 
those who had no other way of learning about 
God except through the created things about 
them and through their consciences. But 
even in this way, even by God's sending his 



god's message to man 11 

messages through special men whom he se- 
lected for that purpose, even then they did 
not learn all that they needed to know; or 
even the highest part of God's character, or 
the best part of his message. That was re- 
served for his final way of speaking to men. 
Here is the best way. 

IV. He Has Spoken Through His Son. 

Again let us study Hebrews 1 : 1, 2 : "God, 
having of old time spoken unto the fathers in 
the prophets by divers portions and in divers 
manners, hath at the end of these days spoken 
unto us in his Son." Spoken in his Son. 
This is his final way of speaking to the world, 
and it is a perfect way. Never again will 
God speak to the world except in his Son. 
We find, then, that God's chosen way of 
giving his message to the world, at least the 
best part of it, is in his Son. That Son, we 
know, was Jesus of Nazareth. 

Let us study something of the message 
that God has given to the world in his Son. 
God wants the world to know him (God). 
He wanted it to know his will concerning 
them, and so he sent his own Son as his mes- 
senger and sent his message in his Son. So 
we find that the Bible calls this Son "The 



12 * TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY 

Word of God." He is God's message to the 
world. 

IN HIS SON, NOT BY HIS SON. 

1. Notice that this writer to the Hebrews 
says that he hath spoken to us in his Son, 
not by his Son. You will notice quite a 
difference. The Authorized Version, which 
most of us read, says by his Son. But the 
American Revision gives it "in" his Son. 
This is the correct way. It helps us to under- 
stand that he did not simply send a message 
to the world by his Son, but that the Son 
was such a one that he was the very expres- 
sion of God himself. You will remember 
that on one occasion Jesus said to one of his 
apostles: "He that hath seen me hath seen 
the Father." Jesus was the very Word of 
God. This is made more emphatic by what 
the writer goes on to say as he is describing 
the Son, "who being the effulgence of his 
glory, and the very image of his substance." 
Heb. 1 : 3. Jesus, God's Son, gathered up in 
his person, the very glory of God. So that 
when he came to the world and mingled with 
men they could see in him the very glory of 
God — what God was. 

That we may be sure is what John meant 
when he said, "And the Word became 



god's message to man 13 

flesh and dwelt among us (and we beheld his 
glory, glory as of the only begotten from the 
Father) full of grace and truth." John 1: 
14. Jesus was the Son of God — the only be- 
gotten Son — and being a Son he had the 
nature of God, the Father. So seeing and 
knowing him, they would know the Father. 
What a splendid way in which God could 
speak to the world ! 

BY WHAT HE SAID. 

2. So, the things that Jesus spoke, were 
the things that God wanted men and women 
to know. He gave to the world the message 
that God gave to him. We cannot take time 
and space here to quote what Jesus said to 
those with whom he came in contact. 
What we wish to express here is that 
God sent his message, the yery best part of it, 
to men, in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, 
who was God's own Son. 

BY WHAT HE DID. 

3. Another way in which Jesus helped to 
express God to the world was by the things 
that he did. Nicodemus said: "We know 
that thou art a teacher come from God ; for 



14 TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY 

no one can do these signs (or miracles) which 
thou doest, except God be with him." John 
3 : 2. The works whch Jesus did, made plain 
to the people the power of God. Thus, 
through these miracles of Jesus, something of 
God's being was made plain. 

TOLD OF GOD'S LOVE. 

4. There is just one more thing about God 
that Jesus made plain to the world, that we 
must think about. That is the certainty of 
the love of God. They did not learn that any- 
where else. At least, they never had it made 
so plain to them as it was in Jesus. They did 
not so learn it from nature or from conscience, 
or even from the prophets of old through 
whom God spoke. 

But they did learn it from Jesus when he 
was nailed to the cross. Paul makes that 
plain in saying, "For scarcely for a righteous 
man will one die : yet peradventure for the 
good man some would even dare to die. But 
God commandeth his own love toward us, in 
that, while we were yet sinners Christ died 
for us." Eom. 5 : 7, 8. God sent his mes- 
sage of love to the world in the sacrifice of 
his Son on the cross. 



god's message to man 15 

V. The Message of God. 

Now, it is in the Bible that we find gath- 
ered up and put into concrete form the mes- 
sage of God. It enables the world to find 
out and to know the message that God sent 
to them. If we did not have the Bible it 
would be almost impossible for men to know 
all that God wants them to know. Without 
the Bible we could not well have the messages 
that God sent in the person of the old proph- 
ets. Jesus has passed away from earth. No 
longer, therefore, in person does he tell us 
about God. 

But the history of his life and sayings and 
doings and sufferings has been written down 
by men whom God guided by his Holy Spirit 
for that purpose, and we have them all re- 
corded in the book we call the Bible. We, 
therefore, call the Bible God's message to 
men, or The Word of God. In this Bible we 
find out that God created everything. That 
he created man in his own image and likeness. 
We find that he created man with an immor- 
tal soul. We find, also, in the Bible what 
God wants man to do. And in that Bible 
we also find that God tells how the man who 
has sinned, and therefore is lost, can find his 
way back to God and be saved. 



16 TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY 

VI. Furthermore, the Bible is the 
Eevealed Message op God. 

By this we mean that man did not find out 
the truths of God and God's will concerning 
man, by his (man's) own wisdom, and then 
write these things down for the use of his 
fellow men. On the other hand, we mean 
that God made these things known in his 
prophets and in his Son. What is told us in 
the Bible is that which man could not find out 
for himself. Therefore, God revealed it, made 
it known to men. Now, in scientific matters, 
such as the facts and truths of botany, 
astronomy, geology, biology, etc., God has 
left these things out of the Bible and left 
man to find them out for himself. This man 
can do, and is doing. As his knowledge 
grows he can find out these things for him- 
self. God has left on his created works traces 
of his handiwork. They are on things that 
men can see. So it is possible for them to 
study and find out the laws of matter. When 
it comes to matters of the soul, to the truths 
of man's spiritual relation to God, and God's 
relation to man, it is impossible for man to 
find them out in his own wisdom. By search- 
ing man does not find out God. Job. XI : 7, 



god's message to man 17 

Since man could not, in his own wisdom, 
find out these necessary truths, God, in his 
goodness and love, has made them known to 
man, uncovered them, revealed them to him. 
We have that revelation recorded in a book, 
and that book is called the Bible. The Bible 
tells us that we could not find out these things 
for ourselves. "Wheref ore I am made a minis- 
ter, according to the dispensation of God 
which is given to me for you, to fulfill the 
Word of God; even the mystery which has 
been hid for ages and generations; but now 
hath it been manifested to his saints, to whom 
God was pleased to make known what is the 
riches of the glory of this mystery among the 
Gentiles, which is Christ in you the hope of 
glory." Col. 1: 25-27. Again, "Concerning 
which salvation the prophets sought and 
searched diligently, who prophesied of the 
grace that should come unto you : searching 
what manner of time the Spirit of Christ 
which was in them did point unto, when it 
testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ 
and the glory that should follow them. To 
whom it was revealed, that not unto them- 
selves, but unto you, did they minister these 
things, which now have been announced unto 
you through them that preached the gospel 

2 



18 TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY 

unto you by the Holy Spirit sent forth from 
heaven ; which things angels desired to look 
into." 1 Peter 1 : 10-12. 

We thus see that in spiritual matters — in 
the great truth of man's relation to God, 
there was no way to know about these, except 
as God should reveal them to men. What he 
has thus revealed we find in the Bible. Our 
Bible is God's revealed message to man. 



CHAPTEK II. 



THE BIBLE IS A TEXT-BOOK OF 
KELIGION. 

If we are to understand the Bible aright, 
and if we are to get out of the Bible the most 
good possible, we must have a clear and dis- 
tinct conception of the purpose God had in 
view in giving the Bible to the world. So, 
the very first question that we want to be sure 
of is, Why did God give us the Bible? What 
did he want us to learn from the Bible? If 
we get the right answer to this question, we 
shall have cleared the way to the richest and 
most important mine of truth in all the 
world. The answer to that question is simple 
and direct. 

I. The Bible is a Text-Book of Beligion. 

Let us get on a firm footing and in a true 
position by saying that it is a text-book of 
religion only. It is not a text-book of any- 
thing else, and does not undertake to be a 
text-book for anything else. Now, what is 

(19) 



20 TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY 

meant by this statement is that the Bible was 
not meant to be a text-book in which we are 
to learn all about the science of astronomy, 
geology, botany, or any of the other sciences. 
It is not, in any sense, the object of the 
writers of the Scriptures to give instruction 
in detail about physical things, or to enlarge 
the bounds of physical science. So if anyone 
wants to get full knowledge or information 
regarding this earth or its relation to the sun, 
moon and stars, he must go to some recent 
text-books on astronomy, geology, etc. 

The Lord had no such purpose in mind 
when he inspired the men who wrote our 
Bible. "But if anyone wishes to know what 
connection the world has with God, if 
*he seeks to trace back all that now is to 
the very foundation head of life, if he 
desires to discover some unifying principle, 
some illuminating purpose in the his- 
tory of this earth, then we confidently refer 
him to the first and the subsequent chapters 
of Scripture as his safest, and, indeed, his only 
guide to the information he seeks." That is 
to say, the Bible, in its opening sentence, says 
that God created everything. Such is the 
teaching of the first verse of the gospel which 
John wrote. So does the Scripture show 
that God is the ruler of the universe. 



A TEXT-BOOK OF RELIGION 21 

But certainly the Bible in no way under- 
takes to give the scientific methods of creation 
and so on. What we must keep in mind is the 
fact that the Bible does not undertake to go 
into the realm of scientific research and 
knowledge, but simply to show man's relation 
to God. As an incidental thing, references to 
natural phenomena and historical events must 
occur, and such references are accurate, but 
they are not the great themes of the Bible. It 
undertakes to show him how to get back into 
the right relation with God when he is not 
in the right relation. To tell him of his 
eternal destiny, and point the way to it; 
indeed, to help him find his way to it. Mat- 
ters of science are matters which man may 
know by his own study and reason, and God 
has left man to find out these things for him- 
self, giving him only the aid that is to be had 
from the works which the Creator has left 
upon his physical creation. 

A reference to physiology, which treats of 
the bodies of animals, including man's body, 
will illustrate this. The Bible does not un- 
dertake to tell us about the bones, and blood, 
and arteries, and veins, and their relation to 
each other, and the functions which they per- 
form. We do read that we are fearfully and 



22 TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY 

wonderfully made. But with that the Bible 
contents itself. Man can find out about these 
things for himself, and is finding out and 
writing the necessary treatises on them. It 
is not necessary for man to know these things 
in order to be saved; therefore, the Bible 
does not treat of these things. 

The Bible is a text-book of religion, and not 
of physiology. The same principle holds 
everywhere else. Let us take the science of 
astronomy, for example. The Bible tells us 
that God created the stars, but it does not 
undertake to tell us all about their distances, 
movements, etc. Someone has put the truth 
very pointedly in this way : "The Bible tells 
us how to go to heaven and not how the 
heavens go." 

On this point the following is helpful: 
"Yet, I think we often try to find in 
the Bible and in the Christ what is not to be 
found in either and belongs to neither. We 
try to find in both certain truths of science 
or of history which do not belong to either. 
The Bible is scientific without being a book 
of science. Though Genesis does correspond 
in the order of its creative days with the 
periods declared by modern geology, yet the 
Bible was not given to teach geology. 



A TEXT-BOOK OF RELIGION 23 

Though the records of the Bible of Egyptian, 
Assyrian, and Babylonian conquests corre- 
spond with the records written on newly-dis- 
covered slab or brick or cylinder, yet the 
Bible was not given to teach history. 
Though the Christ found his text in seeds 
and trees and birds, he did not come to teach 
biology. The Bible, though scientific, is not 
a record of science. The Bible, though his- 
toric, is not a book of history. The Bible is 
a revelation of truths respecting the character 
of God and the duty and destiny of man. . . . 
For the Christ came to man as a teacher sent 
from God, inspiring the highest ideals, reveal- 
ing God, not to teach men of rocks and lichens 
and mustard seeds. The Bible is the book of 
ethics, the book of character, the book for the 
soul. The Christ came to give life and give 
it abundantly. He came as the way and the 
truth." 

II. The Bible is the Only Text-Book of 
Eeligion. 

It is very plain to us by this time that the 
Bible is a text-book of religion only 
— that is, that it was not given to the 
world to teach scientific truths, but that 
God's one purpose, and only purpose, was that 



24 TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY 

from it man might learn about spiritual 
things. It is equally true that nowhere 
else do we find out the necessary things about 
religion. There is no text-book of religion 
except the Bible. Science is as silent about 
religion as the Bible is about science. Let 
each keep to its own field. Man looks in vain 
in any scientific work to find the evidence of 
God's love and grace, or for any formula for 
the forgiveness of sins, and man's restoration 
to his right relation with God. The reasons 
for this are really as plain as the nose on the 
face. 

In the first place, science treats as one 
moral and spiritual truths. The two are 
altogether different from each other. Just 
as the Bible says, spiritual things are spirit- 
ually discerned and that which is called the 
natural man cannot know them. Then, in 
the second place, we learn of moral and spirit- 
ual things only as they are revealed to us. 
Men learn of scientific things by the research 
of the mind. Since the Bible is the only 
volume of revealed truth, we cannot anywhere 
else find out the truths of religion — the way 
of salvation. Yes, let us understand dis- 
tinctly that when we want to learn about the 
things of the soul, there is but one text-book 



A TEXT-BOOK OF RELIGION 25 

to which we can go, and that text-book is the 
Bible. The Bible is the only text-book of 
religion. 

III. The Bible is the Text-Book in Which 
We Learn the Way to God. 

"I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ ; 
for it is the power of God unto salvation to 
every one that belie veth; to the Jew first, 
and also to the Greek." Kom. 1: 16. 

The Bible shows us first that man, as 
he came from the hand of God, was perfect, 
that he was in the right relation with God. 
Then the Bible shows us that sin came into 
the world and deceived man, persuaded him 
to disobey God, to do that which was wrong. 
This ruined man. It made him a sinner. It 
got him out of relation with God. It so cor- 
rupted man, that every one who comes to 
years of accountability becomes a personal 
wrongdoer — a sinner. As a sinner, he is 
out of fellowship with God, out of the right 
relation to him. Sin has made man afraid 
of God. It robs him of all that is highest 
and noblest and best. All this we learn from 
the Bible. From it we also learn that man 
is an immortal being. Man does not die or 



26 TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY 

cease to be when his body dies. He lives on 
somewhere, either in happiness or misery. 
The Bible tells him how he can get back 
into the right relation with God for this world 
and for the next. So the main thing in the 
Bible is the truth as to how a sinner who is 
out of the right relation with God, may come 
back into the right relation with him and 
thus be saved. The Bible shows us that it is 
impossible for him to do this in his own 
strength. His flesh is too weak. He must 
have help from outside himself. That help 
is furnished him in a person who is called the 
Deliverer, or Messiah, or Christ, or Saviour. 
We also learn from the Bible that this person, 
this Saviour, was Jesus of Nazareth. The 
Bible also tells us that this person, Jesus, 
was God's own, his only begotten, Son. The 
Bible shows us that God prepared a nation 
from whom this Saviour was to come. That 
when this nation was prepared this Saviour 
came. The Bible has recorded for us the 
things about this person which prove that he 
was the promised Saviour. Then, when he 
came, heaven bore witness to him in such a 
way that we know he was sent from God. 
From the Bible we learn that he was able to 
save men because he lived a sinless life, and 



A TEXT-BOOK OP RELIGION 27 

because he made a propitiation for the sins 
of the world. He suffered in man's room 
and in place of man — suffered what man 
should have suffered, because of his sins. 

Then the Bible shows us that when this 
Saviour had been put to death for the sins of 
man, God raised him from the dead, thus 
showing that God had set his seal upon him, 
that it was true as he claimed that he was 
God's Son and the Saviour whom God had 
promised and sent into the world. Then the 
Bible makes it plain that wherever a sinner 
believes in this person, Jesus of Nazareth, 
accepts him as his personal Saviour, surren- 
ders himself to him, that such an one is what 
we call "saved." By this is meant that this 
believer's sins are pardoned, he comes into 
the right relation with God, and when he 
passes from earth his life in the great beyond 
will be one of peace and happiness. But we 
must not overlook the fact that a believer in 
Christ, one who is a saved man, is one who 
seeks to do God's will and to live right in this 
world. The Bible idea is that salvation 
means right living here as well as hereafter. 

Therefore, the Bible contains the great prin- 
ciples of right living. It teaches that the 



28 TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY 

life of a Christian is lived with different mo- 
tives, purposes, and actions from the life of 
one who is not a Christian. So the Bible is 
a text-book of right living — living in obe- 
dience to the commands of God. The com- 
mandments we find recorded in the Bible, 
but the Bible also teaches that when a man 
accepts Jesus Christ, when he becomes a 
Christian, he is not left to live this life all by 
himself and in his own strength. He has the 
help of the Holy Spirit, the third person in 
the Trinity. This Holy Spirit gives him a 
new heart, therefore he has new desires, new 
motives. He wants to do God's will. Then 
this Holy Spirit helps him to find out God's 
will concerning him. He comforts him in 
his times of distress. He strengthens him in 
his times of temptation. 

The Holy Spirit prays for this one who 
believes in Jesus Christ. He helps him 
to grow more like the Saviour day by 
day. For the one who is a Christian, 
everything works together for his good. Last 
of all, this Holy Spirit will raise him from 
the dead and give him a body like unto the 
glorious body of his Saviour, Jesus Christ. 
The Bible is a true text-book of religion, and 



A TEXT-BOOK OF RELIGION 29 

answers the cry of the sinner unto his God 
for the pardon of his sins and the salvation 
of his soul. It is the power of God unto 
salvation to everyone who believeth. 



CHAPTER III. 



THE BIBLE IS INSPIKED OP GOD. 

The Meaning op Inspiration. 

When we say that the Bible is inspired, 
we do not, of course, mean that God wrote 
the Bible with his own hand. What we do 
mean is that God had a message that he 
wanted to communicate to the world, and 
that he chose certain men to write this mes- 
sage; and he so guarded and guided them 
that they wrote what he wanted written, and 
made no mistakes as they wrote. Peter gave 
us the heart of the matter when he wrote: 
"For the prophecy came not in old time by 
the will of man ; but holy men of God spoke 
as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." 2 
Peter 1: 21. From this we learn that the 
Bible is not the product of the will of men, 
but that certain men, men selected for that 
purpose, wrote the Bible, speaking when the 
Holy Ghost moved them to speak, which is 
to say, that they were under the guidance of 
the third person in the Trinity. 

(30) 



THE BIBLE IS INSPIRED OF GOD 31 

There are many theories of inspiration. 
We are not going to discuss these. We 
merely want to realize that the Bible 
is not the product of the minds of men, 
but that it is from God. He chose men, 
to be sure, to deliver his message, the Bible, 
but they were so guided by God's Holy Spirit 
that they wrote only the truth. Let it also 
be borne in mind that these writers, though 
inspired, also show their own individualities 
in what they wrote. 

In these writings can be seen "the stern 
character of Moses, the poetical nature of 
David, the love of John, the logic of Paul, 
etc." So their several individualities were 
evidently made use of by the Holy Spirit. 
The Holy Spirit illumined, guided and 
guarded the various writers of the Bible, so 
that they wrote the truths that God wanted 
written. 

I. What the Scriptures Themselves 
Have to Say. 

Let us look at a few specimens of what 
writers of books of the Bible have to say. 
Take the case of Moses. 

"God spake all these words (Ex. 20: 1) ; 
and Moses wrote all the words of the Lord" 



32 TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY 

(Exodus 24: 4) ; and in repeating them to 
the children of Israel he was able to say, 
"These are the words which the Lord hath 
commanded." (Exodus 35: 1.) 

Here is what David says : "The Spirit of the 
Lord spake by me, and his word was in my 
tongue." (2 Sam. 23: 2.) 

Isaiah said, "Hear, O heavens, and give ear, 
O earth, for the Lord hath spoken." (Isa. 
1:2.) 

Listen to Jeremiah, "The Word of the Lord 
came unto me." ( Jer. 1:4.) 

John bears the same testimony in the book 
of Revelation : "The revelation of Jesus 
Christ, which God gave unto him." (Rev. 
1: 1.) All these things but bear out the 
statement of Peter that "Holy men of God 
spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." 
(2 Peter 1: 21.) 

II. The Unity of the Bible. 

One of the strongest proofs to me that the 
Bible is inspired of God is the fact of its won- 
derful unity. 

The Bible has but one theme. It under- 
takes to tell us only one thing, and that is how 
God redeemed man from sin through a Sa- 
viour, called the Christ, whose name was 



THE BIBLE IS INSPIRED OP GOD 33 

Jesus. Now, to the careful and intelligent 
student of the Bible this is perfectly clear. 
The Bible begins by telling of man as he was 
first created. He was created in God's image 
and was all right. He was living in Paradise. 
Then sin came and caused man's fall, and 
drove him out of Paradise. That is the way 
the Bible opens. But it closes by showing 
that man has regained Paradise. So the 
Bible rounds itself off into a unity. But a 
study of the Bible between the Paradise with 
which it opens and that with which it closes, 
will show how man regained his lost Paradise. 

The unity of the Bible is further shown by 
the fact that the way by which man regains 
his lost position, is by and through a person. 
The Bible promises that this person will come 
and do this work. The Old Testament shows 
how God brought this person by raising up 
a nation fit and prepared to bring him. Then 
when you read the gospels you find an ac- 
count of the coming of this person, and in 
these gospels is found recorded the things 
that prove that he was the divine person that 
God has promised. Then the Book of Acts 
shows us how the gospel of this person and 
his saving work was spread to all the known 
world. The epistles expound the redemptive 

3 



34 TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY 

meaning of the gospels. Eevelation an- 
nounces the downfall of sin and Satan, and 
man's victory in regaining his lost Paradise. 
So the Bible gathers itself around the one 
theme of the redemption of man from sin, and 
that redemption through a person that God 
had promised should come and redeem man. 
The name of that person was Jesus. The 
Bible is, therefore, a unity. 

But how does this wonderful unity prove 
to us that the Bible must be from God ? It 
lies in the fact of the diversity of the Bible. 
This diversity is found in the various times 
in which the Bible was written ; in the large 
number of men by whom it was written ; in 
the different languages in which it was writ- 
ten; and by the difference in the different 
writers of the Bible. 

If the Bible had been written by one 
man, and, therefore, in a reasonably short 
space of time, we can conceive how there 
might be, and doubtless would be, unity in it. 
In that case, the evidence would not be as 
strong as it is. But it was not so written, 
and it will help us to see the great diversity 
of its composition, and then bear in mind 
tjiat it all fits together perfectly. 



THE BIBLE IS INSPIRED OP GOD 35 

1. Consider the Number of Books of the 
Bible. — The Bible is not just one book. It 
is a book made up of sixty-six books. Each 
book has its own story to tell, each complete 
in itself. Yet when they are brought to- 
gether into one book, they make a book com- 
plete in itself, telling its own wonderful story 
of one thing — Redemption. 

2. The Writers of the Different Boohs. — 
There are more than sixty different books in 
the Bible, and they are written by something 
like forty different writers. Then these 
writers were very different in their mental 
abilities and temperaments. They lived at 
different periods of time, and many of them 
were strangers to each other. Some of them 
could not know what others were writing 
about. Yet the writings of these various 
men so fit in with each other that they form 
a completed whole, having to do with one 
theme — Redemption. 

3. Consider that These Books Were Writ- 
ten at Widely Different Intervals. — They 
were written during a space of time covering 
sixteen hundred years. Some were written 
fifteen hundred years before Christ, some one 
thousand years before Christ, some iive hun- 
dred years before Christ, some a hundred 



36 TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY 

years after Christ. Yet they all make up a 
book of wondrous unity. Could this have 
been possible, except for the fact that some 
supernatural being was guiding and direct- 
ing all the writers? We are told that Sol- 
omon's temple was builded after this manner. 
The materials were all prepared in different 
places and then brought and put together in 
Jerusalem, each part fitting perfectly in its 
own place, and all together forming a single 
most beautiful building. One architect 
planned and directed the whole. So was the 
Bible builded. One great Architect planned 
and directed it. That Architect was God. 
God inspired the Bible. 

III. The Spade. 

By this is meant that the recent discoveries 
which have been made in Bible lands all go 
to prove the truth of the Bible. All these 
discoveries are the same in this regard, 
wherever they have any relation to the Bible 
at all. There are many of these recent discov- 
eries, but we will take the space to give only 
one such. "The treasure city of Pithon, built 
for Barneses II by the Hebrews during the 
time of their hard bondage in Egypt (Exodus 
1: 11) has recently been unearthed near Tel- 



THE BIBLE IS INSPIRED OP GOD 37 

el-Kebir; and the walls of the houses were 
found to be made of sun-baked bricks, some 
with straw and some without straw, exactly 
in accordance with Exodus 5: 7, written 
3,500 years ago : 'Ye shall no more give the 
people straw to make bricks as heretofore.' " 

IV. The Character op Those Who Live 

According to the Teaching 

op the Bible. 

Wherever you find people who believe 
in the Bible as the Word of God, and who live 
their lives according to the Bible teaching, 
there you find people whose characters and 
lives are like those that the Bible is intended 
to make. Even people who deny that the 
Bible is inspired will admit that the people 
who live up to its teachings are the best 
people. It should be borne in mind that the 
aim of the Bible is to help men to live right. 
Redemption from sin, according to the Bible 
idea, is something more than merely to enable 
people to go to heaven when they die. It is 
that, of course, and more. It is that men's 
lives on earth may be what they ought to be. 
Remember that sin caused men to live wrong 
and sinful lives, and God's redemption of men 
from sin was with a view to their being en- 



38 TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY 

abled to live right in this present world, as 
well as to be happy in the next world. 

If the people who accept the Bible as God's 
Word and live according to its teachings, are 
the people who live right, then the Bible must 
be true. If the teachings of the Bible are 
not true, then those who accept its teachings 
and live by them would not be people of the 
best characters and lives. "Men do not 
gather grapes of thorns nor figs of thistles." 
Every tree is known by the fruit that it bears. 
All the world knows that those who live ac- 
cording to the teachings of the Word of God 
are the best people and the best citizens. An 
undeniable proof of the divineness of the 
Bible is the character which the Bible pro- 
duces. 

Of the same nature as this is the fact that 
the good institutions in the world, the insti- 
tutions that have been built for the relief of 
suffering humanity, are those that have been 
built in the lands where the Bible is found 
or in those countries that have received their 
suggestions from the countries where the 
Bible is to be found. 

V. Prophecy and Its Fulfillment. 
The Bible bears witness to its own divine 
nature, by the many -prophecies found in it, 



THE BIBLE IS INSPIRED OF GOD 39 

and the record of their coming true. There 
are too many of these for me to give anything 
like all of them. God told Abraham, nine- 
teen hundred years before Christ, that the 
nation that would descend from him would 
be slaves in a far country. Also that God 
would smite the nation enslaving them, and 
would bring his people back to their own 
country. This was fulfilled. Later on his 
prophets warned the nation that, for their 
idolatry, they would be carried away into 
captivity, but a remnant of them would be 
brought back. This was also fulfilled. In 
the Old Testament there are many and 
minute prophecies about the Eedeemer whom 
God would send. For instance : About the 
place of his birth ; his being born of a virgin ;• 
his bones not being broken ; the piercing of 
his hands and feet; the casting lots for his 
garments, etc. All of these were literally 
fulfilled. Jesus prophesied that Jerusalem 
and the temple would be destroyed because 
they refused to accept him. Forty years 
later it was literally fulfilled. No more is 
needed. How could these prophecies have 
been made and literally fulfilled if the One 
who rules over all had not inspired the 
writers to foretell them? These prophecies 
prove that the Bible is from God. 



CHAPTEE IV. 



THE STOEY OF OUK ENGLISH BIBLE. 

I. The Original Manuscripts op the 
Bible. 

The story of how we came to have our 
Bible in its present form is one of much in- 
terest. The Bible was not originally written 
in English. Neither were the first copies of 
the Bible printed. The Bible was not writ- 
ten by one person, but by several. All the 
books of the Bible were not written at one 
time, nor in a short space of time. It was 
fifteen hundred years between the time of the 
writing of the first book and the writing of 
the last one. 

When the sixty-six books that make up our 
Bible were first written, they were written 
by hand, and written on parchment — a sub- 
stance that looks somewhat like paper. 
These parchments were called manuscripts, 
because written by hand. Instead of being 
folded, they were usually rolled up, and, 
therefore, called rolls. 

(40) 



STORY OF OUR ENGLISH BIBLE 41 

The Old Testament was originally written 
in Hebrew, and the New Testament in Greek. 

II. Copies. 

If anyone wanted a copy of the Bible, it 
would have to be written from the first manu- 
scripts by hand. Of course, soon copies came 
to be made from the first copy. This would 
continue until, by and by, there would be 
copies that were several times removed from 
the first manuscripts. We can thus see how 
it would be possible for slight errors to creep 
into some of these copies, because the person 
who undertook to make a copy of the Scrip- 
tures might mistake one letter for another. 
Or, if he had someone reading off to him, he 
might mistake one word for another which 
sounded like it. No serious errors, however, 
would occur that way. 

III. Translations. 

It came about, by and by, that people who 
did not speak the same language as those in 
which the Bible was written wanted copies 
of it in their own language. Therefore it 
was necessary to translate the Bible into the 
language that these people spoke. As early 
as 280 B,C, the Pentateuch was translate*} 



42 TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY 

from the Hebrew language into the Greek. 
This was done in Alexandria, in Egypt. It 
was called the Septuagint, because seventy 
persons were engaged in the translation. 
Somewhat later the other Old Testament 
books were also translated into Greek. This 
translation of the Old Testament is quite 
frequently referred to now by scholars. 

In 385 A.D. Jerome completed the trans- 
lation of the New Testament into Latin. 
Afterward, he translated the Old Testament 
directly from the Hebrew into Latin. The 
Bible, thus translated into Latin, was called 
the Vulgate. This means the language of 
the common people. For many centuries the 
Vulgate was almost the only Scriptures that 
the people used. 

IV. The English Bible. 

But our present interest is not so much in 
the translations into other languages, as it is 
in our English translation. 

I. THE SOURCES FROM WHICH THE TRANSLATORS 

DREW. 

In making a translation into English, let 
us remember that there are three general 
sources from which to draw : 



STORY OF OUR ENGLISH BIBLE 43 

(1) There are the copies of the Scriptures 
in the original languages in which they were 
written. 

(2) Then there are the early translations 
of the Scriptures into other languages, such 
as the Septuagint, the Syriac and the Vulgate. 

(3) The third source is the writings of the 
early Christian fathers, in which are found 
quotations from the earlier manuscripts. 
These three sources would all be studied and 
compared, so as to arrive at a translation 
that would, as nearly as possible, represent 
the original writings. 

II. THE ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS. 

We shall not try to give an account of all 
the English translations, but only a short ac- 
count of the most important ones. 

(1) The first one noted is Wyckliffe's 
Translation. — John Wyckliffe was the first 
person who conceived the idea of giving the 
whole Bible to his fellow countrymen in the 
English language. He had the assistance of 
the best scholars he could get. lie completed 
his translation in 1384 A.D. It was from 
the Latin Vulgate. This translation became 
very popular, and a great many copies were 
wanted. These all had to be written by hand, 



44 TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY 

for the art of printing had not yet been in- 
vented. It is said that some of the yeomen 
were so anxious to obtain the Word of God 
that they often gave a load of hay for a few 
chapters of Paul's writings. For this work 
Wyckliffe was accused of heresy and expelled 
from Oxford University. He was afterward 
summoned to appear before the Pope to 
answer charges against him. He died in 
1384 A.D. In 1415, it was decreed that his 
ashes should be cast out of consecrated 
ground. This was carried into effect thir- 
teen years later. 

(2) Tyndale' s Translation, 1525 A.D. — 
There was an interval of more than a century 
between Wyckliffe and the next great 
English translation. About 1484, one hun- 
dred years after the death of Wyckliffe, 
William Tyndale was born. About the 
middle of the fifteenth century, or about 1450 
A.D., the art of printing came into use. 
Tyndale wanted the English people to have 
the Bible in their own language and in 
printed form. He soon found that he would 
not be permitted to do this work in England. 
In 1524 he left England and went to Ger- 
many. The next year, 1525, he issued an 



STORY OF OUR ENGLISH BIBLE 45 

English version of the New Testament. This 
was a printed copy. 

Some three thousand copies of this New 
Testament were smuggled into England 
and distributed among the people. The 
reading of these was prohibited by the 
English authorities on pain of death. 
England was still under papal rule. Wher- 
ever a copy was found it was burned. Al- 
most all these copies that had been brought 
into England were destroyed. 

Tyndale translated almost all the historical 
books of the Old Testament, and revised and 
corrected the translation of the New Testa- 
ment. He was treacherously arrested and im- 
prisoned near Brussels, and after being con- 
fined for years, was strangled and burnt as a 
heretic at Antwerp in 1536. Our modern 
Authorized Version of the New Testament is 
substantially Tyndale's translation, with the 
spelling modernized. 

(3) Other Translations. — Several other 
translations followed, sometimes in quick suc- 
cession. Coverdale's Bible appeared in 1536. 
This was the first printed edition of the 
entire Bible in English. Matthew's Bible 
was issued in 1537, having been printed some- 
where on the continent. The great Cran- 



46 TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY 

mer's Bible came out in 1539. The Geneva 
Bible, in 1560. During the reign of Queen 
Elizabeth the Bishops' Bible was issued. In 
1582 the Roman Catholic hierarchy of 
England published the Bheims and Douay 
version of the New Testament. In 1609 the 
Old Testament was translated under the 
same auspices. This is the Catholic Bible. 

(4) The King James Version. — This ap- 
peared in 1611 A.D. This version is also 
called the Authorized Version, because King 
James authorized its translation. This is 
the version that is in common use among 
Christians today. Most people have this 
version and prefer to use it. For beauty of 
language it cannot be surpassed. A confer- 
ence of the leading English Ministers was 
held at Hampton Court in 1604 A.D. These 
ministers agreed that a new version of the 
Bible should be made in English. 

King James approved this, and a few 
months later, with the advice of the bishops, 
nominated a body of fifty-five translators. 
The men chosen for this work were among the 
very best scholars of England. They did 
their work thoroughly. About seven years 
were spent in making this translation. This 
version has now been in common use for three 
hundred years. 



STORY OF OUR ENGLISH BIBLE 47 

(5) The Revised Version, 1885 A.D.— For 
some time it had been felt that a new version 
of the Scriptures ought to be made in order 
that we might have a version that would be 
more correctly representative of the Bible as 
it came from the hands of the inspired writ- 
ers. There are several reasons for believing 
that a version made in modern times would 
be more exact than one made three hundred 
years ago. 

BETTER AND MORE MANUSCRIPTS. 

At the present time we have access to 
a treasury of ancient manuscripts utterly un- 
known when the King James Version was 
made. For instance, there are three very old 
manuscripts that were not known about 
when the King James Version was made. 
These date back to 300 to 450 A.D. These 
three are: 

(a) The Vatican Manuscript. This is 
thought to be the oldest of them all. It has 
lain for at least four or five hundred years in 
the Vatican Library in the city of Koine. It 
is still kept there. 

(6) Then there is the Sinaitic Manuscript. 
It was found by Tischendorf in St. Cather- 
ine's Convent, at the foot of Mount Sinai, in 



48 TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY 

1859. This precious manuscript is kept in 
St. Petersburg. 

(c) The third is the Alexandrian Manu- 
script, which is in the British Museum in 
London. It first came into the possession 
of the English in 1628 A.D., eleven years after 
the Authorized Version had been printed. 
We can see, therefore, what great help these 
three old manuscripts would be in getting a 
more correct copy of the Scriptures. 

OTHER ADVANTAGES. 

In the second place, the science of text 
criticism has made great progress. 

The scholars of the present day are 
better acquainted with the ancient languages 
than were the scholars of three centuries ago. 

Because of the natural growth of the 
English language, many of the words of the 
time of King James have changed their 
meaning. 

With these advantages the scholars of 
England and America began the work of 
revising the King James Version in 1870. 
The English scholars first did the work and 
then sent it to the American scholars, who 
made suggestions. This was repeated. 
After much conscientious labor the English 



STORY OF OUR ENGLISH BIBLE 49 

scholars brought out the Eevised Version — 
the New Testament in 1881, and the Old 
Testament in 1885. 

(6) The American Revision, 1900 AD. — 
As has been said above, the work of the Ee- 
vised Version, made in 1885, was done by 
both English and American scholars. These 
could not agree on all things. The final 
preference was given to the English Commit- 
tee because they had taken the initiative in 
the work. It was agreed among the mem- 
bers of these two committees that they would 
publish no other work for fourteen years. 
During these fourteen years the American 
members of the committee kept diligently at 
work. They had all the notes of both the 
English and the American committees before 
them. The result was that in 1900 they 
brought out what is called the American Be- 
vision. There is no doubt that this is the 
most accurate of all the translations of the 
Bible. 



50 



TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY 



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CHAPTER V. 



THE CANON, AND HOW OBTAINED. 

I. Meaning of the Word Canon as Applied 
to the Scriptures. 

In its connection with the Scriptures its 
meaning is akin to the inherent meaning of 
the word itself. By looking up its applica- 
tion to other things, you will discover that it 
carries with it the idea of a rule, or regula- 
tion. It means a rule or law in general. If 
you take the meaning of the word in an eccle- 
siastical or religious sense, you find this 
definition : "A law or rule of doctrine or dis- 
cipline, enacted by a council or other com- 
petent ecclesiastical authority." 

So, when you come to apply the word canon 
to the Scriptures, this definition is given: 
"The books of the Holy Scriptures accepted 
by the Christian Church as containing an au- 
thoritative rule of religious faith and prac- 
tice." And so, when we talk about the Canon, 
as applied to the Bible, we mean all the books 
which are to be found in the copies of our 

(51) 



52 TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY 

Bible as they are commonly found. It means 
that these same books have been accepted by 
Christian people, generally, as writings in- 
spired by God. As such, of course, Chris- 
tians believe they carry within themselves the 
authority of God. 

Therefore, to them, Christians look for the 
doctrines they are to hold in their religious 
belief. They also consider that in these 
Scriptures they are to find directions 
for the regulation of their daily lives. 
But we are also to bear in mind that 
by the Canon we mean those writings which 
have been accepted by Christians generally 
as inspired of God, and, therefore, to be 
obeyed — that is, the book we call the Bible. 
The Canon of the Scriptures, then, is our 
well-known Bible. 

II. The Difference Between the Canon 
and the Apocryphal Books. 

The Alexandrian Jews possessed a sacred 
literature in the Septuagint translation. 
But there were other writings which might 
be styled sacred literature, but were not re- 
garded in the same light as the Septuagint. 
These books were appended to the Septuagint 
translation. These books were called the 



THE CANON AND HOW OBTAINED 53 

Apocryphal books. There were seventeen of 
them in all. Esdras, Tobit, Judith, Wisdom 
of Solomon, and Maccabees, were the names 
of some of these books. Some of the people 
believed they ought to be accepted on a par 
with the Scriptures, but the Palestinian Jews 
would not so accept them. While they were, 
in a sense, sacred literature, they were not 
considered as books of religious authority, 
and, therefore, not binding upon the people. 
Therefore, they were not included in the com- 
monly accepted Canon. 

III. How the Canon of Scripture Was 
Formed. ' 

By this is meant, how did the Bible as it is 
at present come to contain the books which 
are found in it? What was it that caused 
the Christians, generally, of the early years 
of the Christian era to select from the writ- 
ings of that time, that had to do with reli- 
gious matters just the books that they did, 
and so reject others, that, to some people, 
seemed to be of the same character as those 
that were selected? What were the things 
connected with these books that caused these 
early Christians to believe that these, and 
these alone, were meant of God to be the ones 



54 TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY 

that he wanted them to accept as the treasury 
of divine truth and authority for them? 

What is here written will have to do almost 
entirely with the New Testament. So far as 
I have been able to learn, there is no litera- 
ture telling how the Canon of the Old Testa- 
ment came to be formed. We shall have to 
be satisfied to know that, in the time of the 
Saviour and of the apostles, they already had 
and were using the Old Testament Scriptures 
practically as we have them now. Besides, 
the Saviour continually referred to them, 
and in a way that showed that he counted 
them as sacred writings, and as God's mes- 
sage to man. He thus put his approval on 
the Old Testament Canon, and we are content 
to accept it as such. The apostles regarded 
the Old Testament Canon in the same light 
as the Saviour did. 

So, what we want to study, briefly, is how 
the New Testament Canon grew up, and how 
the books that it contains came to be accepted 
as trustworthy and were thus gathered up in 
the form in which we have them. 

1. Oral Teaching, Etc. — Jesus wrote noth- 
ing, and he purposely left his teachings 
to the memories of his chosen Apostles. But 
there was a reason for his dependence on 



THE CANON AND HOW OBTAINED 55 

their memories, and he gives it. He was 
going to send the Holy Spirit, and he would 
bring all these things to their remembrance. 
He told them this. He put his approval on 
the teachings of the Old Testament, but at 
the same time made it plain that he was 
giving a new revelation — one that fulfilled, 
and, in a sense, superseded the revelation of 
the Old Testament. 

But this new revelation he left stored 
in the memories of his Apostles. And 
it was this way with the early disciples, 
after Jesus' death, and even after the Holy 
Spirit had come. They used the Old Testa- 
ment as interpreted by Jesus, and continued 
in the teaching of the Apostles, whom they 
knew to be eye-witnesses of the works and 
words of Jesus, for they had been with Jesus 
all the time that he went in and out before 
the people. Their faith was drawn from the 
Old Testament and from the oral teaching 
concerning the Lord, and from the discourses 
of Jesus as delivered to them by the Apostles. 

When the disciples were scattered abroad 
by the persecution of Saul, then a new era 
arose. Churches sprang up in Judea, Sama- 
ria and Syria, and by 60 A.D. the number of 
the churches was greatly increased through 



56 TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY 

the intense missionary work of Paul and 
others all over the eastern portion of the 
Eoman Empire. When this came about it 
was no longer possible to have an Apostle, or 
even an eye-witness of the word, resident in 
each community. But it was desirable to 
have the teaching of first-hand witnesses to 
the gospel everywhere churches existed, to 
confirm its oral preaching by those who were 
not first-hand witnesses. 

2. We Have the First Written Narrative 
of the Life and Works of Jesus. — We can see 
that under these conditions there very early 
arose a demand for a written narrative of 
the oral teachings of the life and teachings of 
Jesus. These written narratives began to 
appear, more or less meager at first, but from 
time to time there would be a demand for 
fuller accounts. So it became the custom in 
the sixties and seventies of the first century 
to write fuller narratives. When Luke wrote 
his gospel, "many had already taken in hand 
to set forth in order a declaration of those 
things which are most surely believed among 
us." Luke 1:1. By the end of the first 
century there were a large number of written 
documents about the life and teachings of 
Jesus, etc. Space here forbids their dis- 
cussion. 



THE CANON AND HOW OBTAINED 57 

3. Time of the Writing of the Books that 
Are Found in Our New Testament. — The 
dates of the writings of the New Testament 
books are about as follows : James dates from 
50 A.D. ; First and Second Thessalonians, 52 ; 
Galatians, 54 ; First Corinthians, 56 ; Second 
Corinthians, 57; Komans, 58; Philippians, 
Ephesians, Colossians, Philemon, 60-62 ; 
Matthew, Mark, Luke, 60-80 ; First Timothy, 
Titus, Second Timothy, 66-68 ; Hebrews, 69 ; 
Eevelation, 70; First Peter, Jude, and Sec- 
ond Peter (?), 70-80; First, Second and 
Third John, 90-95; John, 95. 

IV. The Gospels. 

The four Gospels are the first books of the 
New Testament to be elevated to Canonical 
authority. The Canon of Scriptures recog- 
nized by Christians during the years 30-150 
A.D. was the Old Testament as newly inter- 
preted and the Lord's Words, being but the 
continuance of what was taught of Jesus. 

"The Words of the Lord" were already rec- 
ognized as really the Canon of Christendom 
so that as such they were written down and 
collected into "Gospels" during the last half 
of the first century. Just because these "Gos- 
pels" contained these words, they were pre- 



58 TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY 

served and read in the churches during the 
first half of the second century and gained 
Canonical standing by, say, the year 150. 

" Just as they owed their selection for read- 
ing in the churches to the fact that they con- 
tained and attested the 'Lord's Words/ so, at 
last, they owed their Canonical standing as 
inspired writings to the fact that they were 
useful unto edifying in public worship. Use- 
fulness unto edification, then, seems to have 
been the touchstone and the vindication of 
inspiration in the public mind of the first and 
second centuries." At least by 160 A.D. our 
four Gospels had come to receive full Canon- 
ical standing along with the Old Testament. 
"The Fathers of 160-180 A.D. recognized 
these four, and only these four, Gospels as a 
sufficient Canon of the Gospel truth." 

V. The Recognition of Other Books. 

As to the remainder of the New Testament 
writings, the churches seem to have made 
early collections, and some of them were read 
in the churches in public worship, not as 
equal with the Gospels, but as being useful 
in interpreting the Old Testament and the 
"Lord's Words," and the Gospels. This was 



THE CANON AND HOW OBTAINED 59 

true during the first half of the second cen- 
tury. This function as expounders and inter- 
preters of Christianity increased more and 
more in the latter half of the second cen- 
tury. It was probably their usefulness in 
this regard that caused them, somewhat sud- 
denly, in the last quarter of the second cen- 
tury, to come to have a place in the Canon on 
a level with the Old Testament and the 
Gospels. 

In giving a brief summary as to how 
the books of the New Testament, other than 
the Gospels, came to have a place in the 
Canon, it is enough to say, perhaps, that be- 
cause eastern philosophers and others began 
to write on Christian themes, soon there was 
a multitude of such writings and the people 
were soon confronted with the question, 
"What is the source of Christian truth?" 
This naturally threw them back on Apostolic 
writings, as the Canon of their teaching. 

"So, gradually, unconsciously, and involun- 
tarily, the churches were slowly forced to fix 
a Canon of Christian writings containing and 
attesting the truth. These they found ready 
at hand in the Gospels, read in the churches 
as containing the 'Lord's Words' and works, 
and the Epistles as profitable in interpreting 



60 TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY 

them." "Thus they came by gradual process 
to be regarded by Christians as the sole, suffi- 
cient, inspired rule of faith and practice, as 
the Christian world holds them to be today" 
The Canon of the New Testament was com- 
pleted in the fourth century. 



CHAPTER VI- 



BAPTISTS AND THE BIBLE. 

To give a clear-cut definition of the word 
Baptist is likely to prove a task that is more 
difficult than at first might be imagined. 
This is true because the Baptists have no 
authoritative creed. Many people think they 
have. Such people fancy that Confessions 
of Faith are binding creeds. They are not. 
These confessions are only an effort to set 
forth the substance of Bible truth. Those 
who prepared these Confessions were careful 
to let it be known that they were never in- 
tended to be taken as binding creeds. 

It is difficult to define the meaning of the 
word Baptist in terms of doctrine, because a 
Baptist believes everything that is in the 
Bible. Bible and Baptist are convertible 
terms. They mean the same thing. Baptist 
doctrine, therefore, is Bible doctrine. To be 
a Baptist one must hold to all that he finds in 
the Bible. If, then, we want to know whether 
one is a Baptist, we must find out his atti- 

(61) 



62 TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY 

tude toward the Bible. That, I am going to 
try to show here, instead of trying to set 
forth the separate doctrines which Baptists 
hold to be taught in the Bible. 

I. The Word of God. 

Baptists believe that the Bible is the Word 
of God. That is to say, Baptists believe that 
God inspired the men who wrote the Bible. 
They believe that God's Holy Spirit so guided 
the writers of the books of the Bible that they 
wrote down what God wanted the world to 
know, and, therefore, these writers made no 
mistakes. Baptists believe that the Bible 
is without error. They believe that God put 
into the Bible all that he wanted men to 
know in matters of religion. Therefore, 
Baptists believe that — 

II. The Bible is an All-Sufpicient Kule 
of Faith and Practice. 

Baptists believe that Christians should 
have in their doctrinal beliefs only what is to 
be found in the Bible. They believe that in 
their practices there should be nothing that 
is contrary to what is taught in the Bible. 

The Bible, then, is the Baptist creed. It, 



THE BIBLE AND BAPTISTS 63 

and it alone, is binding. A Baptist, then, does 
not take what someone else says as his rule of 
faith and practice — he takes only the Bible. 
The Baptists acknowledge no other authority 
than the Bible. But they insist that what 
the Bible teaches is binding on them to hold 
and to do. If it is in the Bible, then that is 
sufficient for them. They do not say they 
will not accept it because they do not and 
cannot understand. The real question with 
Baptists is, "Does the Bible teach it?" A 
Baptist does not set up his conscience as the 
final authority. He takes the Bible. There- 
fore, of course, he does not allow any individ- 
ual to dictate to him what he must believe. 
His Bible is his authority. He does not 
allow that any number of men by getting to- 
gether and proclaiming what is right, have 
any authority to bind him. Not even the 
church of which he is a member can take 
precedence over the Bible. And, of course, 
no pastor can presume to stand between the 
individual and his Bible. The pastor and 
others may be of help to the individual in 
coming to realize what is the Bible teaching, 
but after all the Bible is his final Court of 
Appeals, and what the Bible teaches is the 
law for him. 



64 TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY 

The Baptists not only believe that the 
Bible — and the Bible alone — is sole 
authority in matters of faith and prac- 
tice, but they believe that it is an authority 
that is to be obeyed. This view requires 
that one must do what the Bible says do. 
That is, one must not only believe that the 
Bible teaches something, but that we must do 
what it says do. One cannot, therefore, say 
that he will take only what suits him and 
leave the rest alone. He cannot say that 
while the Bible teaches one thing, something 
else will do as well. For instance: The 
Baptists believe that the Bible teaches that 
immersion, and immersion only, is baptism. 
They believe also that only those who exer- 
cise a personal faith in Jesus Christ are scrip- 
tural subjects for baptism. Therefore, they 
cannot practice sprinkling or pouring for 
baptism, as some do. Neither do they prac- 
tice what is called infant baptism — the bap- 
tism of those who cannot exercise a personal 
faith in Jesus Christ. The Baptists hold that 
we must do what the Bible says, and not what 
may be convenient or what one thinks may 
do as well. 



THE BIBLE AND BAPTISTS 65 

III. The Eight of Private Interpretation. 

Another cardinal doctrine among the Bap- 
tists is that every one has a right to interpret 
the Scriptures for himself. We want 
to be careful just here. This does not mean 
that a man has a right to study the Bible for 
himself and pick out what suits him and 
reject what does not suit him. Far from it. 
It means that no one has a right to step in 
and say what another must believe as the 
teaching of the Scriptures. You know that 
is what is claimed by some who bear the 
Christian name. They claim that the ordi- 
nary man is not capable of interpreting the 
Scriptures for himself, and, therefore, those 
higher up must tell him what the Scriptures 
teach and he must accept that as final, else 
he will be punished. Baptists hold 
that each one has a right to search the Bible 
for himself and find out what it teaches and 
regulate his life according to that. There is 
a statement in Acts 17: 10 which bears out 
this view very strikingly. Paul and Silas 
had been driven out of Thessalonica, and had 
come to the city of Berea. Here they went 
into the synagogue and preached. Here 
is what is said of those to whom they 
preached. -"These were more noble than 

5 



66 TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY 

those of Thessalonica in that they received 
the word with all readiness of mind, and 
searched the Scriptures daily, whether those 
things were so." You see that these people 
were not satisfied to take the words of Paul 
without going to the Scriptures and there 
seeing for themselves whether Paul was 
preaching the truth. And the writer of the 
book of Acts, under the inspiration of the 
Holy Spirit, commends them for it. 

That is just what Baptists hold, that every 
one has the right, and that it is his duty, to 
study the Scriptures for himself and inter- 
pret for himself. It will, therefore, readily 
be seen that the Baptists hold that every one 
must hear for himself, repent for himself, 
believe for himself, be baptized for him- 
self, and be judged fo? himself iat 
last. 

Naturally, then, they reject the idea 
of infant baptism, for infant baptism 
means that someone else is deciding the 
matter of baptism for one who is incapable, 
as yet, of deciding for himself. This right 
to interpret the Bible for one's self means 
that every soul is itself competent to deal 
with God in all matters of religion. There- 
fore, the church has no right to impose the 



THE BIBLE AND BAPTISTS 67 

interpretation of the majority of its members 
on anyone. Neither does the pastor have the 
right to decide for the individual, the inter- 
pretation of the Scriptural teaching. The 
preacher should, and indeed it is his duty to, 
help the individual to find out what the 
Scriptures do teach, but at last the individ- 
ual must decide for himself. 

That is the essence of the last part of the 
great commission. Listen : "Go ye therefore, 
and teach all nations, baptizing them into the 
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of 
the Holy Ghost : teaching them to observe all 
things whatsoever I have commanded you." 
Matt. 28 : 19, 20. The emphasis on the last 
point is that they are to teach those whom 
they disciple that they are to observe, or do, 
all that Christ has commanded. It is the 
duty of all to do all that Christ has com- 
manded. This naturally carries with it the 
right to decide what Christ has commanded 
them to do. If this is not true, then the 
individual is not responsible to Christ but to 
men. 

We must not forget that a church even 
does not have the right to interpret the 
Scriptures for its members. This does not 
mean that a member of a Baptist church 



68 TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY 

has a right to teach any kind of vagaries that 
his fancy may have imposed upon the Scrip- 
tures. We must remember that a Baptist 
church is composed of those persons who have 
voluntarily associated themselves together to 
promote, under the leadership of Christ, cer- 
tain great fundamental truths which they 
hold in common. They have associated 
themselves together because they do hold 
these common truths. 

Therefore, to teach things contrary to 
these fundamental truths is a violation 
of their agreement with each other. Their 
own private interpretation has led them 
to hold these same great truths in com- 
mon. Beyond these truths they have a 
right to interpret for themselves. Thus a 
Baptist church provides for the right of pri- 
vate interpretation for its niembers. 

This very doctrine of the right of private 
interpretation naturally makes Baptists hold 
to the doctrine of separation of church and 
state, which means that the state has no 
right to dictate what a man shall believe in 
matters of religion. 

For this the Baptists have always con- 
tended. They have, therefore, ever been 
free from the sin of persecuting others for 



THE BIBLE AND BAPTISTS 69 

their religious beliefs. Because they have 
held these views they have been the pioneers 
and the greatest contributors in securing 
religious, mental, and political freedom for 
the world. The world is not really aware 
of the debt it owes to the Baptists. 



CHAPTER VII. 



THE ANALYSIS OF THE BIBLE. 

In this and in the following chapter, we 
want to get a bird's-eye view of the Bible. 
We want to be able to follow its main thought 
through from first to last, and in so doing, see 
that there is one continuous thought. We 
will also see how the whole Bible fits into 
itself. It will reveal the fact that while 
there are sixty-six separate books in the Bible, 
yet, after all, they constitute one book. 
Therefore, we shall discover the perfect unity 
of the Bible. 

This study will begin with a definition of 
the Bible. It is this : "The Bible is a history 
of God's redemption of man from sin, through 
a Saviour called The Christ, whose name is 
Jesus." Looking into the definition we dis- 
cover that the Bible has one theme — redemp- 
tion. It will also be seen, of course, that 
there is somebody to be redeemed — man. 
Naturally, there must be some cause for his 
needing to be redeemed. That cause is sin. 

(70) 



ANALYSIS OF THE BIBLE 71 

Then there must be some way by which he is 
to be redeemed. That way is found to be a 
person. That person is found to be Jesus of 
Nazareth. He is the one who fulfills the 
prophecies made that God would send a De- 
liverer, , a Saviour, a Messiah. The Bible 
shows that he was also the Son of God. 

We are now ready for a bare analysis of 
the Bible. Here it is : 

The Analysis of the Bible. 

1. Man. Gen. 1 and 2. 

2. Sin. Genesis 3-11. 

3. The Saviour, or Redeemer. Gen 12: 1 

to Jude. 

4. Man redeemed. Eevelation. 

In this analysis we have the main things 
treated in the Bible. We see, also, that this 
analysis covers the whole Bible. In the 
treatment, I shall not undertake to bring in 
every book of the Bible. But if we had time, 
it could be shown how every book of the Bible 
fits into its proper place. 

Let us proceed to get our bird's-eye view 
a little more in detail. 



72 TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY 

I. Man. Gen. 1 and 2. 

According to our definition of the 
Bible, we would naturally expect that the 
Bible would begin by telling us about man, 
who is to be redeemed. And so it does. But 
in so doing, the Bible leads up to this by 
showing how God created everything by the 
word of his power. This is done by the 
sweeping statement : "In the beginning God 
created the heavens and the earth." Gen. 
1 : 1. Then there is a brief statement of the 
creation in detail, by which the Bible shows 
the earth was prepared for man. Everything 
else was created for man, because man was to 
have dominion over every other created thing. 

Then comes the description of man's crea- 
tion. Studying the Scriptures, we find that 
man was created out of the dust of the earth. 
Gen. 2: 7. Thus far, I take it, he was like 
the other animals. But there is a further 
description. After so making man he went 
further with him. God "breathed into his 
nostrils the breath of life; and man became a 
living soul." Gen. 2 : 7. That means a great 
deal. Further light is thrown on this as 
we read Gen. 1 : 26, 27 : "And God said, Let 
us create man in our image, after our likeness. 



ANALYSIS OP THE BIBLE 73 

So God created man in his own image, in the 
image of God created he him; male and fe- 
male created he them." 

We thus see how great man was when 
he was first created. God gave him dominion 
over all the other things that he created. He 
also told him to multiply his kind and replen- 
ish the earth ; also to subdue the earth. Man 
as thus created was pleasing unto God. 

II. Sin. Gen. 3-11. 

While man, as first created, was pleasing 
unto God, something soon happened to him 
that changed man's condition very materially. 
That something was sin. So the second main 
thing the Bible treats of is sin. How sin 
thus got its hold on man is told in the third 
chapter of Genesis. You are so familiar with 
the account of the serpent's coming to the 
woman and tempting her and inducing her to 
disobey God; and how she caused Adam to 
do likewise, that there is no need for me to 
go into detail. 

The effect of sin on man is shown in that 
same chapter. It shows how it made man 
afraid of God, broke his fellowship with 
God, caused him to dislike to meet and talk 
with God, caused him to be driven from 



74 TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY 

the garden, made him weary as he toiled 
for his daily breads made the ground to bring 
forth thorns and thistles, and sowed in man 
the seeds of temporal and eternal death. 

But the account of man's ruin by sin does 
not stop there. God goes on to show that 
not only were Adam and Eve ruined by sin, 
but that the ruin extended to all their de- 
scendants. So the fourth chapter shows us 
how Cain, the first child born of these parents, 
and ruined by sin, in cold blood slew his 
brother Abel. 

This is followed by the account of the 
flood, by which all of the people descended 
from Adam and Eve, except Noah and 
his family, were destroyed. The reason 
they were destroyed was because they were so 
wicked. One more instance of the ruinous 
effect of sin is shown by the dispersion (Chap- 
ter II), which was because those who grew 
up after Noah were themselves so corrupt. 

The Bible having established the fact 
of the complete ruin of man by sin, and, 
therefore, his need of being saved from such 
a state, then gives us an account of the way 
in which God is going to accomplish this 
redemption. A hint of that is given back in 
Genesis 3 : 15. There we see that God says 



ANALYSIS OF THE BIBLE 75 

he will put enmity between the devil and the 
woman, between the devil's seed and the 
woman's seed; that while the devil should 
bruise the heel of the woman's seed, her seed 
should bruise the serpent's head. We now 
know that this promise means that God would 
raise up a person, descended from the woman, 
who should overcome both sin and Satan, and 
thus redeem man from the ruined condition 
into which sin had brought him. So our 
next subject for study is 

III. The Eedeemer. Gen. 12: 1 to Jude. 

By noticing tliis reference, we see that most 
of the Bible is taken up with this subject. 
It is a long story, and we really can give only 
the merest outline, pointing the way here and 
there. 

1. The Development of a Nation. — The de- 
velopment of a nation that shall come to be- 
lieve in one God, the true God, and then, 
having come to this state, the promised De- 
liverer is to be born from this nation. Gen. 
12 : 1 to Malachi. We see that all the rest 
of the Old Testament is devoted to telling us 
how God did this. It is no easy task. But 
in this part of the study is shown how God 
so revealed himself to his chosen nation, and 



76 TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY 

how lie so dealt with them that he finally 
did bring them to where they came to have 
faith in him as the one true God, and to wor- 
ship him as such. For the most part God's 
dealings center about individuals. 

(1) Abraham, 1996-1821 B.C. {Gem 12-24) . 
— Abraham was the human founder of this 
nation. He was born in Ur of the Chaldees, 
among idolatrous people. With his father 
he moved to Haran. After his father's death 
God called him to go to Canaan, promising 
him that he would bless him. He went, 
taking his wife and nephew, Lot. Because 
of famine he went into Egypt, returned to 
Canaan, separated from Lot, and is blessed 
of God. Eescues Lot and pays tithes to 
Melchizedec. Is promised a son. Visited 
by three persons of whom one is the Lord. 
When he is ninety-nine years old and his wife 
eighty-nine he is promised a son by Sarah. 
This is fulfilled. Then he is ready to sacrifice 
this son at God's command. Has another son 
of whom a maid of Sarah is the mother. Six 
others by his second wife. These are all 
sent away and Isaac is the sole heir and the 
one from whom the nation is to spring. Dies 
at the age of 175. 



ANALYSIS OF THE BIBLE 77 

(2) Isaac, 1896-1716 B.C. (Gen. 24-26).— 
Isaac is the miraculously born son of Abra- 
ham and Sarah. Doubtless he is impressed 
with this ; also by his father's readiness to sac- 
rifice him. Marries his cousin Kebekah. En- 
treats the Lord for Eebekah. Esau and Jacob 
born. God urges him not to go to Egypt. 
Renews to him the promise made to Abraham. 
Prospers him in Gerar. Eeveals himself to 
Isaac in Beersheba. Isaac died, aged 180 
years. 

(3) Jacob, 1386-1639 B.C. (Gen. 27-36).— 
He is the younger of twins born to Isaac and 
Eebekah. Bargains for Esau's birthright. 
Steals his father's blessing. Starts for Haran. 
Has a vision of God at Bethel. Comes to 
Haran. Marries Leah and Rachel. Leaves 
with much property. Returns to Canaan. 
Has twelve sons — Reuben, Simeon, Levi, 
Judah, Dan, Napthali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, 
Zebulon, Joseph and Benjamin. 

(4) Joseph, 1745-1635 B.C., and His Brotfi- 
ers (Gen. 37-50). — This is the beginning of 
the chosen nation. The history here centers 
around Joseph. He is the son of Jacob and 
Rachel. Father's favorite. A dreamer. 
Hated by brothers. Sold into Egypt. Cast 
into prison. Interprets dreams, including 



78 TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY 

those of the king. Made governor of Egypt. 
Is visited by brothers. Sends for father, 
who, with his household, sixty-six persons in 
all, come to live in Egypt in 1706 B.C. 

(5) Moses, 1571-U51 B.C. (Exodus to Deu- 
teronomy). — For awhile after Joseph's death 
the history of the chosen people is silent. 
We are told that they grew rapidly in num- 
bers. The rulers of Egypt began to fear 
them. They imposed heavy burdens on them 
and ordered the male children of the Jews to 
be slain when born. Moses' mother hid him. 
He was rescued and reared by Pharaoh's 
daughter. Left Egypt when forty years old. 
Was in Midian forty years. God called him 
and sent him to Egypt to lead the Israelites 
out of bondage and into the land of Canaan. 

By a series of plagues he led them out, 
across the Bed Sea and into the wilderness. 
Stayed at Mt. Sinai for a year. There the ten 
commandments were given. Also regulations 
for worship and for living. For unbelief 
they were doonjed to wander for forty years 
in the wilderness. Moses disobeyed God and 
died in the wilderness. When the Israelites 
left Egypt, in 1491 B.C., they numbered more 
than two million people. 



ANALYSIS OF THE BIBLE 79 

(6) Joshua, 1536-U26 B.C. (Joshua).— 
Moses was succeeded in the leadership of the 
Jewish nation by Joshua, a fighting man. He 
led them miraculously across the Jordan and 
miraculously captured Jericho. He con- 
quered Canaan for the Israelites and divided 
it among the twelve tribes. This took seven 
years. He ruled them for eighteen years 
longer and died at the age of 110 years. 

(7) The Judges, U26-1095 B.C. (Judges) .— 
After Joshua's death the people began to go 
off after false gods. Then God would punish 
them by giving them over to their enemies. 
When their burdens became heavy they would 
cry unto the Lord. He would hear them 
and raise up a man w r ho would deliver them 
and then rule over them. They would be 
good for awhile, and then go astray. This 
was repeated again and again for nearly four 
hundred years. During this time they had 
fifteen of these special men, and they were 
called judges. 

(8) The Kings, 1095-975 B.C. (1 Samuel to 
1 Kings 2). — The people finally grew tired of 
judges and asked for a king. Their request 
was granted. Saul was their first king. He 
started out well, but soon disobeyed God, and 
things went wrong. He was succeeded by 



80 TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY 

David, who made a great king and made the 
kingdom great. He sinned and suffered. 
His son, Solomon, was the third king. He 
was very wise. He built the temple. Mar- 
ried heathen women, who led him into idol- 
atry. For this God told him that after his 
death his kingdom would be divided. 

(9) The Division of the Kingdom, 975-722 
B.C. (1 Kings 2 to 2 Chronicles).— After Sol- 
omon's death the kingdom was divided. Ten 
of the tribes formed the Northern Kingdom, 
or the Kingdom of Israel. This portion was 
idolatrous from the very first. Had many 
bad kings, and was carried away into cap- 
tivity in 722 B.C. 

Two tribes— Judah and Benjamin — niade 
up the Southern Kingdom, or the Kingdom 
of Judah. They were less idolatrous, and 
had many good kings. Finally they became 
so idolatrous that God let them be carried 
away, too, in 586 B.C. The temple was 
burned and the walls of the city torn down. 

(10) In Captivity, 586-536 B.C.— They were 
in captivity in Babylon, but their lot was only 
fairly harsh. They had some liberty. Did 
some public work. Had their own elders, 
and their own vineyards. Some of them, 
like Daniel, for instance, rose to positions of 
prominence. 



ANALYSIS OF THE BIBLE 81 

(11) Return from Captivity, 536-400 B.C. 
— God moved the heart of Cyrus to issue a de- 
cree that all the Jews who so wished could re- 
turn to Jerusalem. All the Jews who did not 
go back were to give of their substance to 
those who did. About fifty thousand of them, 
mostly of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, 
and some of the Levites, went back. This 
was in 536 B.C. They set about repairing 
the temple when they returned, and estab- 
lished their old worship. Several years later, 
under the leadership of Nehemiah, they re- 
built the walls. At last, and by this captiv- 
ity, the Lord had accomplished his purpose. 
He had finally raised up a. nation that had 
come to believe in him as the one true God. 
They were completely cured of their idolatry. 
So we have finished the study of the first step 
in the Saviour's work — the study of the devel- 
opment of a nation that should have faith in 
God, and thus be fitted to bring the Eedeemer. 

6 



82 



TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY 



First Temple. 
1000 B. C. 
j Judah 
1 2 Tribes. 



Solomon 



Israel ) 
10 Tribes. J 



Rehoboam. 

Ago ) 

Jehoshaphatl \ 

Joash. 

Amaziah. 

Uzziah. 

Hezekiah. 

Manasseh. 

Josiah. 

Jehoiakim. 

Zedekiah. 
Jerusalem 

Destroyed. 



(Elijah.) 

(Elisha.) 

Obadiah Jonah 

Isaiah. 1 

Micah. Hosea 

Amos 

Joel. 
f Jeremiah. 



Jeroboam I. 

JAhab. 

Jehu. 

Jeroboam II. 

Pekah. 

Hoshea. 
(722 B.C.) 



Assyrian Cap- 
tivity and 
"Lost Ten 
Tribes." 



Habakkuk^ 

587 B. 0. 



Babylonian Captivity. 

(Daniel.) 
(Ezekiel.) 



70 

Years. 



Second Temple. 
500 B.C. 



Zerubbabel. 



Haggai. 
Zechariah. 
Malachi. 
-I* Christ. 



Return. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



THE ANALYSIS OF THE BIBLE 

(continued). 

Let us bring over from the preceding chap- 
ter the thought that the Bible treats of four 
main facts. Its first two chapters tell us 
about man. The next nine chapters tell us 
how sin came into the world and so ruined 
man that he could not possibly redeem him- 
self from its ruinous effects. Then the third 
great fact is the Saviour who is to redeem 
man from sin. The fourth is this redemption 
completed. But we also saw that nearly all 
the Bible is given up to the third great fact, 
which was about the Saviour. 

The first step in this was the development 
of a nation, beginning with Abraham, which 
should come to believe in the one true God, 
and to worship him only. All the Old Testa- 
ment from the twelfth chapter of Genesis on, 
is devoted to this. We saw that God accom- 
plished his purpose, finally, by sending them 
away into captivity in a foreign country. 

(83) 



84 TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY 

When they came back from this captivity they 
were completely cured of their idolatry. We 
now come to the second step in this third 
great fact. 

2. The Coming of this Promised Saviour. 
Matthew to John. 

We see how completely the Bible fits into 
itself. What could be more natural than 
the fact that after the Bible has told us how 
God fitted a nation to bring the Bedeemer, it 
should then tell us about the coming of that 
Bedeemer ? The Gospels are devoted to doing 
just that thing, and they do it in the way that 
shows that Jesus of Nazareth was that prom- 
ised Saviour, and that he was also the Son of 
God. That very same thought is brought 
out by John toward the close of his Gospel. 
"But these things are written, that ye may 
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of 
God; and that believing ye might have life 
through his name." John 20 : 31. 

Let us observe some of the things recorded 
in the Gospels that go to prove that this Jesus 
was the promised Saviour and able to redeem 
man from the ruin that sin had brought. 



ANALYSIS OP THE BIBLE 85 

WITNESED IN A SPECIAL WAY. 

(1) The first thing we shall study is what 
we may call the witness that God bore to him. 

Even before he was born, God sent his 
angel to tell Mary that she should have a son 
begotten of the Holy Ghost. When he was 
born in Bethlehem, the place where the Scrip- 
tures said the Saviour should be born, an 
angel came from heaven and told some simple 
shepherds that a Saviour had been born that 
day, and that he could be found wrapped in 
swaddling clothes and lying in a manger in 
the town of Bethlehem. Then many angels 
came and joined this angel and they all sang 
a hymn of praise unto God. 

After the angels went back to heaven, the 
shepherds went to Bethlehem and found that 
the angel had spoken the truth. The visit of 
the wise men was also an evidence of the 
greatness of this new-born One. When they 
took the child to the temple, God enabled the 
old priest, Simeon, to recognize him as the 
long-promised Saviour. God cared for the 
child by telling his parents to take him into 
Egypt until the wrath of the king was passed. 
When Jesus was baptized, God bore divine 
witness to him by speaking from heaven and 
calling him Son. He did the same on the 
Mount of Transfiguration. 



86 TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY 

HIS MARVELOUS TEACHING. 

(2) Jesus of Nazareth was shown to be 
more than a mere man by his marvelous teach- 
ing. He did not teach like ordinary teachers. 
He taught as one who had authority to teach. 
Those who heard him said that no other man 
ever spoke like this man Jesus. 

HIS WONDERFUL WORKS. 

(3) Then the works that he did set him off 
from the rest of mankind. He healed all 
manner of sicknesses, and his cures were im- 
mediate. He cured those who were at a 
distance from him. Gave sight to a man 
born blind. He healed the incurable leprosy. 
Eaised the dead. Calmed the raging sea by 
his mere word of command. 

A DIFFERENT LIFE. 

(4) Then his life was different from the life 
of any other man. All others were sinners, 
more or less. Jesus' life was free from sin. 
No one ever showed where Jesus did anything 
wrong. 

HIS SUFFERINGS FOR SIN. 

(5) Then we must not forget his sufferings 
and his death. The Scriptures had prophe- 



ANALYSIS OP THE BIBLE 87 

sied his sufferings. He, himself, had said 
that he must be crucified. They condemned 
him to the cross, and when he hung there, 
such things happened that the centurion who 
had charge of the soldiers who nailed him to 
the cross was convinced that he was the Son 
of God. 

HIS RESURRECTION. 

(6) The greatest proof of all, that Jesus 
was the promised Saviour, is his resurrection 
from the dead. He had said that he would be 
killed and rise on the third day. Now, he 
had also said that he was the Son of God, and 
the Christ promised in the Old Testament. 
If he was not, he was an imposter. If an 
imposter, God would not have raised him 
from the dead. But the fact that God did 
raise him from the dead, puts God's approval 
on him that he was really the promised 
Saviour. The Gospels give us many instances 
of his appearing to his followers after his 
resurrection. 

Now, the Scriptures tell us that Jesus kept 
the law for us by his sinless life. They also 
teach us that his sufferings and death were a 
propitiation, or an acceptable sacrifice, for 
the sins of men. They also make it plain 



88 TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY 

that this life, death and resurrection consti- 
tute what is called the Gospel. That is, be- 
cause he did these things, then any man who 
believes in him — i. e., surrenders himself to 
him — will be redeemed from his sins — that is, 
will be saved. This is the good news called 
the Gospel. Now, this Gospel is intended 
for everybody. That brings us to the third 
thing in our study of the Saviour, viz. : 

3. The Spread of the Gospel — Acts. 

When Jesus completed the plan of salvation 
as it is told to us in the Gospels, nobody 
knew about it but the Jews, because Jesus had 
confined his earthly ministry to the Jews. 
But he came to redeem man from sin — that 
means everybody, for sin had ruined every- 
body. So the next thing after the gospel had 
been completed was that that gospel should be 
carried to all those who did not know about 
it. How this was done is shown us in the 
Book of Acts. So this Book of Acts can very 
properly be called the Book of Missions. A 
careful study of this book will reveal the fact 
that this work was done under the guidance 
of the Holy Spirit. God's hand was in it all. 

After the resurrection of Jesus and just 
before he ascended to heaven, he was talking 



ANALYSIS OF THE BIBLE 89 

to the disciples on Mount Olivet, just outside 
Jerusalem. In the course of this conversa- 
tion he said to them, "But ye shall receive 
power when the Holy Ghost is come upon 
you, and ye shall be my witnesses both in 
Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and 
unto the uttermost part of the earth." Acts 
1: 8. Now, this verse makes a good text 
for the whole book. It shows that Christians 
are to be Christ's witnesses. That is their 
business. They are to be his witnesses every- 
where, even unto the uttermost parts of the 
earth. It also shows that the Holy Spirit 
will furnish them the power by which they 
shall bear effective witness for him. 

In the second chapter, we have an account 
of the coming of this Holy Spirit, and of how 
by this help Peter bore such witness to Christ, 
that in preaching one sermon three thousand 
people were saved. The remainder of the 
book is taken up with showing how they did 
bear witness to him, or how the gospel got 
from the Jews who had it to the Gentiles or 
heathen, who did not have it, but for whom 
it was intended, as well as for the Jews. 

(1) The Gospel at Home. — That is, how the 
Christians bore witness to the Saviour in Je- 
rusalem, so that many were led to Christ. 



90 TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY 

Acts 2 : 41 to 7 : 60. It is shown by the way 
they lived, having their possessions in a com 
mon fund, so that all the Christians lived out 
of this. Shown also by the good deeds of the 
Christians and by the preaching of the gospel ; 
also by the work of the deacons in ministering 
to the needs of the people. 

(2) The Gospel on Its Way to the Gentiles 
(Acts 8: 1 to 12: 25).— This part of Acts 
shows how the gospel went, step by step, 
under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, from 
the Jews to the Gentiles. It was first 
preached to the Samaritans, who were part 
Jews. Then Philip preached the gospel ac- 
ceptably to the Ethiopian eunuch, who was a 
Gentile convert to the Jewish faith. Next 
we are told about the conversion of Saul. 
The Lord wants to have a suitable man to 
preach the gospel to the heathen when the 
time comes. So we have the account here of 
the conversion of the great worker. Next 
the gospel is preached to Cornelius, who, 
though a Gentile, is well thought of by the 
Jews. Since the gospel has now been 
preached to the Gentiles, it is necessary to 
have this approved by the Christians at Jeru- 
salem. In the eleventh chapter we have the 
account of this approval. One thing yet 



ANALYSIS OP THE BIBLE 91 

remains to be done, before beginning the work 
of preaching the gospel to the heathen. It 
is necessary to establish a new center from 
which the gospel shall go out to the heathen 
people. This is done in the City of Antioch 
in Syria. 

(3) The Gospel Preached to the Heathen 
(Acts 13: 1 to 21: 26).— In this part of the 
Book of Acts we have an account of the three 
great missionary journeys in which Saul, who 
soon comes to be called Paul, is the central 
figure. I will not undertake to follow Paul 
on these important missionary journeys. 
This can be done by reading the Scriptures 
above cited. 

(4) The Gospel Carried to Rome Through 
Imprisonment of Paul. — It only remains to 
call attention to the arrest and imprisonment 
of Paul (Acts 21: 27 to 28: 31). We find 
that he was arrested in Jerusalem and car- 
ried down to Csesarea for safe keeping. He 
was then tried before Felix, then before Fes- 
tus. Be appealed to the courts at Eome. 
Sailed for Eome. Had the shipwreck, but 
finally reached Eome, where he was in prison 
when the Book of Acts closes. 

(5) Under this main head — The Saviour — 
we have one more section, viz. : The propaga- 
tion of the gospel of Christ. 



92 TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY 

Romans to Jude. — Here we have many 
letters. Paul wrote many of them, some to 
the various churches, and some to different 
Christian workers. Other Christian workers 
wrote letters for general circulation. In 
these letters we see the development of certain 
great doctrinal truths which center in Christ. 
We find exhortations to faith and courage and 
zeal. There are also instructions about how 
Christians are to live — about their conduct. 
There are also things written in these letters 
which guard against errors in belief or doc- 
trine. 

4. Man Kedeemed — Eevelation. 

We come now to the last great division of 
the Bible. It is a time yet in the future. 
It is told us in the Book of Eevelation, the 
only prophetic book in the New Testament. 
It is a prophecy of what will be when the 
gospel of Christ has done the work on earth 
that it was intended to do. Christ came to 
redeem man from the ruinous work of sin. 
Since sin ruined all men, the gospel contem- 
plates the redemption of the world. The 
Book of Eevelation gives us a picture of the 
time when, through the work of the gospel, 



ANALYSIS OF THE BIBLE 93 

the kingdom of this world shall have become 
the kingdom of our Lord and his Christ. 

Thus we see that the Bible is a whole, tell- 
ing us the story of how God redeems man 
from the ruin of sin, through a Saviour. That 
Saviour was Jesus Christ. 



CHAPTEE IX. 



HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 

There is no need to present any arguments 
to show the importance of a knowledge of the 
Bible. The Bible will do us no good unless 
we know its contents. There is really no 
way to study the Bible without studying it. 

Various people have their own ideas and 
methods, and, of course, each one thinks his 
way the best way. That is true about what I 
shall say in this chapter. It certainly is to 
be deeply regretted that there is not more real 
study of the Bible than is being done among 
Christians. 

One of the reasons why there is so little 
real Bible study is because those who read the 
Bible and who undertake to study it are grop- 
ing in the dark. If they undertake to study a 
certain portion of the Bible they do not see 
any connection it has with the other parts of 
the Bible, and, therefore, it is a dry process, 
in most instances. 

If a Christian once gets into the position 
where his study becomes intelligent, then the 

(94) 



HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE 95 

study of the Bible becomes fascinating instead 
of being the dull thing so many find it. There 
are a good many methods of studying the 
Bible, and all of them are of some help. Be- 
fore giving the method which has been of most 
use to me, I will mention some of the ways 
that are in use. 

I. Beading the Bible. 

There is the very simple way of reading the 
Bible day after day. This is done in various 
ways. Some begin at the first and read the 
Bible through from beginning to end. This, 
of course, is helpful. Any regular reading 
of the Bible is helpful. Others read the 
Bible by books. This method is a good one, 
especially if one forms the habit of reading a 
whole book at a sitting. This will help one 
in seeing the purpose the writer has in mind. 
Others have a habit of reading a chapter at a 
time or of turning to some portion of the 
Scriptures somewhat at haphazard and read- 
ing that way. I repeat that good will come 
from any of these methods. 

II. Topical Study of the Bible. 
One of the ways in which some people study 
the Bible is to search through the Bible and 



96 TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY 

find out what is its teaching on various topics. 
This is a more or less attractive way, and 
yields an immediate profit. It has its advan- 
tages. It is certainly worth while to find out 
what the Bible has to say on any great topic. 
Mr. Moody found great help and enthusiasm 
in studying, day after day, what the Bible had 
to say about "Grace." So may one study in 
this way the Bible teaching about "Love," 
"Prayer," etc. 

III. A Study by Persons. 

Another favorite way of studying the Bible 
is to take up one of the great characters of 
the Bible and see how God deals with it. One 
will thus learn much that will be helpful to 
him. Indeed, the Bible is largely a history 
of persons. Take, for instance, the Acts of 
the Apostles. In a large measure that book 
is a history of two men — Peter, the Apostle 
to the Jews, and Paul, the Apostle to the 
Gentiles. This is a splendid way to study 
the Bible. 

IV. Other Ways of Studying the Bible. 

We may have in view the parts of the Bible 
that may be applied to our own individual 



HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE 97 

lives. In fact, we ought always to have this 
in mind. The Bible is meant to be of help 
to us and we ought always to be ready to 
apply to ourselves any of its teachings that 
will strengthen our faith, develop our charac- 
ters, and cause us to live more nearly as 
the heavenly Father wants us to live. Then 
we ought to bring to our study of the Bible 
a willingness to accept what the Bible really 
has to say to us, and not come with a desire 
to bolster up some theory that we may hold. 
Unless we come with this attitude we will not 
get the best results from our study of the 
Bible. And so we must always come to our 
study of the Bible with reverent hearts and 
minds. Let us take up our study with a 
prayer for the guidance of the Holy Spirit, 
without whose help we shall not find the great 
spiritual truths which are in store for the 
reverent students of the Word of God. 

V. A Study of the Bible by Books. 

The best way to study the Bible is by 
books. And yet there are some things 
that go before this study. There are some 
things we must know before we are really 
ready for a study of the Bible by books. 
Each book of the Bible may have its own 

7 



98 TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY 

completed message, but we must remember 
that it takes all these books, with their va- 
rious messages, to make up the One Book, 
the Bible, which as a whole has its own 
message. 

Therefore, we must first have a clear knowl- 
edge of the one thing that the Bible as a 
whole is intended to teach us. It is this. 
"The Bible is a history of how God redeemed 
man from sin through a Saviour called the 
Christ, whose name is Jesus." Keep that 
thought always in mind. Then it is neces- 
sary to know that the Bible is so constructed 
that we may get a brief outline of it — a bird's- 
eye view of its teachings. This is also neces- 
sary to know, in order to an intelligent study 
of the Bible. This outline may be studied in 
Chapters VII and VIII of this book. It is 
enough here to say that the Bible opens with 
an account of Man. Then follows an ac- 
count of the coming of sin and of man's com- 
plete ruin by sin. With the beginning of 
the twelfth chapter of Genesis we have the 
account of the person who is to redeem man 
from sin. This subject takes up all the 
Bible from Genesis 12 to Jude. 

But we need also to realize that this great 
subject has its various steps. From Genesis 



HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE 99 

12 : 1 to the end of the Old Testament, we have 
the history of how God raised up a nation, be- 
ginning with Abraham, that comes to believe 
in God, and was thus fitted to bring this per- 
son who was to redeem man. Now say, for 
instance, one is going to study the book of 
Judges. He must realize that this book of 
Judges has to do with the period when God is 
dealing with the nation of the Jews so as to 
develop true faith in them. They have not yet 
reached that point. So we read in this book 
of Judges how the children of Israel did evil 
in the sight of the Lord — that is, how they 
went off after strange gods. Then God would 
give them over into the hands of their ene- 
mies. These enemies would punish them. 
After they had suffered for awhile they would 
call on God. Then he would raise up some 
man in a way that showed God's hand was in 
it, and this man would deliver them from the 
oppression of their enemies. Then they 
would be true to God for awhile. Then they 
would go off after other gods, and God would 
give them over again. This was repeated 
again and again for nearly four centuries. 

If we understand where the book of Judges 
fits in, in this history of God's development 
of that special nation, I am sure the book will 



100 TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY 

be studied with an intelligence and a fasci- 
nation that it would not otherwise have. This 
is true of the study of other books. 

The Gospels tell us about the coming of this 
Eedeemer from the nation whom God was de- 
veloping as the Old Testament showed us. 
The Gospels bear testimony to the fact that 
Jesus of Nazareth was the One promised in 
this Old Testament. They tell us about his 
life, works, teachings, sufferings, and resur- 
rection, by which he perfected the gospel 
which would have the power to redeem man 
from sin. 

Acts tell us how this gospel spread to all 
the world. The Epistles expound the redemp- 
tive meaning of the Gospels. When we come 
to Eevelation we find a prophecy of what will 
be when this person Jesus has redeemed man 
from sin. 

From what has just been said, it will be 
seen that the first thing necessary in order to 
study a book intelligently is to find out where 
that book belongs in the Bible. That is, to 
find out under what head it comes in the out- 
line of the Bible. This is the first step. 
Then it is necessary to find out what the 
writer had in mind in writing that particular 
book. This can often be done by studying 



HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE 101 






the opening verses of the book. Having 
found out the subject, or thought, that the 
writer has in mind, then try to make an out- 
line of the book. That is, try to get the main 
points he discusses in supporting or proving 
the main thought of his book. Then, when 
you have gotten this outline, make a study of 
the paragraphs. This might be followed by 
a study of each separate verse, and even with 
a careful study of the most important words. 

In getting at the main thought and the 
outline of the book, one is greatly helped by 
reading the whole book, very carefully, at 
one sitting. Then read it through again, and 
even again. Slowly, the great main thought 
and outline will dawn on one, and after 
awhile it will stand out more or less clearly. 

A great help to getting the gist as well as 
the particulars of a book is to get a good com- 
mentary that outlines these things in a simple 
way. For the average student of the Bible, 
this help is of great service. If one will 
study a book of the Bible in this way, he will 
be surprised at the interest he will take in it, 
and be still more surprised at the wonderful 
truths he finds there. He is apt to feel, while 
studying a book of the Bible in this way, that 



102 TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY 

this particular book is the greatest of all the 
books of the Bible. Such a study of a book 
of the Bible will make him feel, beyond ques- 
tion, that at least that book is inspired of 
God. 



CHAPTER X. 



AN EXAMPLE OF BIBLE STUDY. 

In the chapter entitled, "How to Study the 
Bible/' after speaking of several ways of 
studying the Bible, it was stated that the 
most profitable method was in studying it 
book by book. 

In this chapter I shall try to illustrate 
this method. The book of Acts is the one 
selected. The first thing to do is to find out 
where this book belongs in the Bible — that 
is, where it fits in, in the general outline of 
the Bible. Going back to our outline, we 
find that it comes under the third main di- 
vision. We find this out by making our 
divisions as follows : 

1. Man. Genesis 1 and 2. 

2. Sin. Genesis 3 to 11. 

3. The Bedeemer. Genesis 12 : 1 to Jude. 

4. Man Kedeemed. Bevelation. 

So now we take up the third main division 
and see where it comes in. The first poiut 

(103) 



104 TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY 

under this division is : "The development of a 
nation that shall bring the Kedeemer." Gen. 
12 : 1 to Malachi. The second point is the 
coming of this Redeemer. Matthew to John. 
Now, we know that Acts follows the four Gos- 
pels. In our outline we find that the thought 
following the "coming of the Redeemer" is 
"how the gospel got from the Jews with whom 
Jesus left it to the rest of the world/' for 
Jesus came to redeem man — that is, all 
mankind. 

Remember that you are to read the book 
of Acts through very carefully at one 
sitting. Then repeat this. Then again and 
again. Next, taking up the detailed study of 
this book (not forgetting to use any outside 
help), what do we learn? 

We learn about the author. We are told 
that he had written a former treatise 
(v. 1) that it was written to Theophilus 
(v. 1) that the former treatise was about 
Jesus' earthly ministry (vs. 1, 2). By 
reading Luke 1 : 1-4, we discover that 
Luke was the author of Acts. In Acts 1 : 
4, 5, we are told that Jesus had told his dis- 
ciples, after his resurrection, that they were 
to wait in Jerusalem until God fulfilled his 
prom&e to jseod his Holy Spirit. In Acts 



EXAMPLE OF BIBLE STUDY 105 

1 : 6,, the author tells us that some of the dis- 
ciples are with Jesus. (They are just out- 
side Jerusalem, and it is just before his 
ascension.) They still think he is an earthly 
ruler, for they ask him, "Wilt thou at this 
time restore again the kingdom to Israel?" 
(V. 6.) This is not for them to know (v. 7). 

Then we come to the verse that contains the 
key to the book. It forms a golden text for 
the book of Acts. The rest of the book, as a 
whole, is an explanation of this verse. This 
verse gives us the purpose of the whole book. 
Please study this verse carefully. Here it 
is : "But ye shall receive power, after that the 
Holy Ghost is come upon you; and ye shall 
be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and 
in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the 
uttermost part of the earth" (Acts 1:8). 

We must stop long enough to look into 
this verse and analyze it. As I said, it con- 
tains the germ of all the remainder of the 
book. , It tells us, at first, that they are to 
receive a special power, the power of the Holy 
Spirit. In the next place, it tells what these 
followers of Christ are to do — they are to be 
witnesses unto Jesus. Of course, we know 
that this means that they are to bear such 
witness to Jesus, that others shall be led to 



106 TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY 

believe in him. In the third place, this verse 
shows us that they are to be witnesses unto 
Jesus everywhere. There, in Jerusalem, 
where they are at that time; then in Judea, 
which is the country in which Jerusalem is 
located. Next in Samaria, which is a neigh- 
boring state. And last of all, they are to 
bear witness to Jesus in all parts of the 
world. It is world-wide missions. So, the 
book of Acts is really the book of Missions. 
Let us go on in our study, and see how 
this is done. Acts 1: 9-11 tells us that 
Jesus ascended to heaven and that two angels 
told these disciples that Jesus would come 
again. These disciples then went back to 
Jerusalem, from the Mount of Olives (vs. 
12-14), and held a prayer meeting of ten 
days, waiting for the fulfillment of God's 
promise. During this time they chose an 
apostle to take the place of Judas (Acts 1: 
15-26). Let us keep close to our study, 
using the Bible and our other helps. We find 
in Acts 2: 1-41, that God fulfills his promise. 
While they are in the upper room the Holy 
Spirit comes. There is the sound as of a 
rushing, mighty wind, which fills the room 
(v. 2), cloven tongues like as of fire, sat on 
eack (v. 3). They spoke in other tongues 



EXAMPLE OF BIBLE STUDY 107 

(v. 4). The crowd of people from various 
lands (the disciples had probably come down 
from the upper room into the street) heard 
them speaking in other languages than their 
own. They were trying to account for it 
(vs. 5-13). Peter arose and showed them 
that it was the fulfillment of Scripture (vs. 
14-21). Then he preached to them a mar- 
velous sermon showing that Jesus was the 
Christ, whom God had promised (vs. 22-36). 
The effect of this sermon was such that 
3,000 people were saved (vs. 37-41). Here 
was a proof that the Holy Spirit would fur- 
nish them the power by which they could bear 
such witness to Jesus that others would be 
led to believe in him. The time has come 
for them to bear witness to Jesus in Jerusa- 
lem, Judea, Samaria, and unto the uttermost 
part of the earth. 

The remainder of the book of Acts shows us 
how this was done. Be careful to notice that 
they do it under the guiding power of the 
Holy Spirit. Keeping our golden text (Acts 
1:8) before our minds, we naturally expect 
to find that they first bore this witness to 
him in Jerusalem — that is, at home. 



108 TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY 

I. The Gospel at Home. 
Acts 2: 41 to 7: 60. 

Studying this Scripture we find that one 
way they bore witness for Jesus in Jerusalem 
was by the community of goods. (Acts 2: 
41-47 and Acts 4: 32 to 5: 11). By this is 
meant that they put their property into a 
common fund, and all lived out of this. This 
manner of life led many to believe in Jesus. 

Another way in which they bore witness 
was by healing a lame man and preaching 
the gospel to the people who gathered to- 
gether. (Acts 3: 1 to 4: 31.) A third 
record is given in Acts 5 : 12-42. Here they 
do good works, preach and suffer. 

There is yet a fourth way in which they 
bore witness to Jesus in Jerusalem. That is 
by the appointment of deacons and the work 
they did. (Acts 6: 1 to 7: 60.) Trouble 
was arising in the church over the distribu- 
tion of the common fund. It was claimed 
that some people were neglected. Seven men 
were appointed to look after this work. 
They did it so well that the trouble was 
allayed and many people were converted. 
But this aroused the enmity of the Jews, and 
Stephen was put to death, and a persecution 
started against the Christians and most of 



EXAMPLE OP BIBLE STUDY 109 

them were driven away from Jerusalem. 
Wherever they went they carried the gospel 
with them. This brings us to the second 
stage of the history of their witnessing unto 
Jesus. 

II. The Gospel on Its Way. 
Acts 8: 1 to 12: 25. 
We must remember that our golden text 
told us that after bearing witness at home, 
they should *bear witness in Judea and 
Samaria, and then to the heathen world. 
This section has to do with their work before 
it reached the heathen. There were six steps. 
We must be brief. 

1. The gospel preached to the Samaritans, 
who had Jewish blood in their veins. (Acts 
8: 1-25.) Study this and see how it was 
done, and the difficulty they encountered. 

2. The gospel preached to the Ethiopian 
eunuch, a Gentile convert to the Jewish faith. 
(Acts 8: 26-40.) See how the Holy Spirit 
guides. 

3. The call of a great worker, or the con- 
version of Saul of Tarsus. (Acts 9: 1-31.) 
The Lord wants to have a man suitable to 
preach the gospel to the heathen when the 
time comes for this work, so he calls Saul, to 
have him ready. 



110 TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY 

4. The gospel preached to a pure Gentile. 
(Acts 10: 1-48.) That man was Cornelius, 
who was a Roman centurion living at Csesa- 
rea, but one in whom the Jews had confidence. 

5. This preaching of the gospel to the Gen- 
tiles approved at Jerusalem. (Acts 11: 
1-18.) 

6. The opening of a new gospel center. 
(Acts 11 : 19-26.) Jerusalem is not the best 
place from which, as a center, to carry the 
gospel, so a church is established at Antioch 
in Syria. Saul (afterward called Paul) is 
called in to help in the work. The time has 
come to preach the gospel to the heathen — to 
bear witness to Jesus unto the uttermost 
part of the earth. 

III. The Gospel to the Heathen. 
Acts 13 : 1 to 21 : 16. 

Now that the gospel is ready to be preached 
to the Gentiles, the Holy Spirit has Barnabas 
and Paul set aside to do this work. Here is 
a brief outline of how the gospel is carried to 
the Gentiles : 

1. The First Missionary Journey (Acts 13 : 
1 to 14 : 28) .—This tells where they went and 
what took place. Many were saved and 
churches established. 



EXAMPLE OP BIBLE STUDY 111 

2. The Question of Circumcision (Acts 15: 
1-35). — When Paul and Barnabas get back 
to Antioch they find trouble there because 
some Judaizers have come and taught the 
people that the Gentiles must be circumcised, 
else they cannot be saved. Paul and Bar- 
nabas go to Jerusalem to consult the leaders 
about it. The decision is that the Gentiles 
need not be circumcised. 

3. The Second Missionary Journey (Acts 
15 : 36 to 18 : 22) .—Paul takes Silas with him 
on this journey. He is away some four 
years. Most of this time is spend in Europe. 

4. The Third Missionary Journey (Acts 
18: 23 to 21: 16).— On this journey Paul lin- 
gers at Ephesus, visits Europe, and returns 
to Antioch. 

IV. The Gospel in Bonds. 
Acts 21 : 17 to 28 : 31. 

Here is the account of Paul's going to Jeru- 
salem, his arrest, his being sent to Csesarea, 
his trial before Felix, then before Festus, his 
appeal to Borne, his trip to Borne, his impris- 
onment in Borne, where the book of Acts 
leaves him. 

In this all too brief study, we have seen how 
the followers of Christ did what he said in 



112 TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY 

Acts 1: 8 they should do — bear witness to 
him, by the power of the Holy Spirit, in Jeru- 
salem, Judea, Samaria, and unto the utter- 
most part of the earth ; and everywhere con- 
verts were made. If we followed the narra- 
tive closely, we have seen the guiding hand 
of God in it all. The study must have 
made us feel that the book of Acts is a divine 
book and a fitting part of God's one great 
Book, the Bible. 



CHAPTEE XI. 



THE BIBLE IN THE PEKSONAL LIFE. 

Since the Bible is a true text-book of 
religion, it is, naturally, a book that is 
adapted to the personal life. It should be 
borne in mind that religion is intended to 
make the every-day life what it should be. 
Therefore, the Bible being a text-book of 
religion, we find in it the things we need to 
know for our daily living. No other book in 
all the world can compare with the Bible in 
supplying the instruction that is needed to 
meet the problems of life. Jesus is the heart 
and center of the Bible, and Jesus came that 
we might have life abundantly. We would 
expect, therefore, to find in the Bible the very 
truths that we need to know. There are 
several reasons why the Bible meets these 
needs. 

I. It Beveals One to Himself. 

We are not going to live the lives that we 
should live until we come to know ourselves 

8 (113) 



114 TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY 

as we are. It is the Bible that gives us this 
knowledge. This is true because God is the 
author of the Bible. He knows all about us, 
and he put into the Bible those truths about 
us that enable us to see ourselves as we are. 
"For the Word of God is living and active 
and sharper than any two-edged sword, and 
piercing, even to the dividing of soul and 
spirit, of both joints and marrow, and quick 
to discern the thoughts and intents of the 
heart. And there is no creature that is not 
manifest in his sight; but all things are 
naked and laid open before the eyes of him 
with whom we have to do." Heb. 4 : 12, 13. 

God knows all about our hearts, thoughts, 
and lives; and he has spread this knowledge 
of his on the pages of the Bible, and there 
we may see for ourselves just what we are. 
James tells us that the Bible is like a mirror 
in which, if one will look, he will see the 
reflection of what he really is. 

If we shall look into the Bible we will see 
that we are all sinners. By that we will learn 
that we are disobedient to God, that the very 
thoughts of our hearts are altogether evil, 
that we are born in sin, that we are by nature 
the children of wrath, that we are in bondage 
to sin, that we are lost, that we need to be 



THE BIBLE IN PERSONAL LIFE 115 

born again, that we need to be saved. The 
Bible shows us how to get right. So the 
Bible does not make plain to us that we are 
in the wrong path and then leave us to grope 
hopelessly in the dark. It shows us our con- 
dition in order that it may point us the way 
out of our darkness into the light. 

The Bible gives us the unfailing remedy for 
our lost and ruined condition. This is made 
plain by Paul when he says, "For I am not 
ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the 
power of God unto salvation to every one that 
believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the 
Greek. For therein is the righteousness of 
God revealed from faith to faith; as it is 
written, The just shall live by faith." (Eom. 
1 : 16, 17.) By the gospel he means the truths 
that center in Jesus Christ. He tells us that 
by faith in Jesus Christ we shall be saved. 
That is the message of the Bible for sinning 
men. It is in the Bible and the Bible alone 
that we find the way of salvation. 

II. The Bible Helps the Christian to 
Live as He Should. 

The Christian needs something in addi- 
tion to becoming a Christian. He needs 
to know how to live the Christian life. The 



116 TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY 

Bible furnishes this knowledge and help. 
James makes this plain when he says, "If any 
of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that 
giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth 
not; and it shall be given him." (James 
1:5.) Here James is talking about this 
very thing of not knowing how to live, or 
what to do, amid the perplexing problems and 
difficulties that are forever confronting the 
Christian. He makes it plain that God will 
help him solve the problem if only the Chris- 
tian will go to him. Then we learn from 
Proverbs 3 : 6, "In all thy ways acknowledge 
him (God), and he will direct thy paths." 
When God directs us we shall not go astray. 
That the Bible will help one to live aright 
is shown in Psalm 119 : 105, "Thy word is a 
lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path." 
The wise man wrote in Proverbs 6: 23, 24, 
"For the commandment is a lamp; and the 
law is a light; and reproofs of instruction 
are the way of life; to keep thee from the 
evil woman, from the flattery of the foreign- 
er's tongue." A thousand years after this 
was written, Paul wrote: "All Scripture is 
given by inspiration of God, and is profitable 
for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for 
instruction in righteousness; that the man 



THE BIBLE IN PERSONAL LIFE 117 

of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished 
unto all good works." (2 Tim. 3: 16, 17.) 

I quote another section of the Scripture: 
"The law of the Lord is perfect, converting 
the soul ; the testimony of the Lord is sure, 
making wise the simple. The statutes of 
the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the 
commandment of the Lord is pure, enlighten- 
ing the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, 
enduring forever ; the judgments of the Lord 
are true and righteous altogether. More to 
be desired are they than gold, yea, than much 
fine gold; sweeter also are they than honey 
and the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is 
thy servant warned ; and in keeping of them 
is there great reward." (Psalm 19 : 7-11.) 

That the Bible has in it the power that 
makes the life a prosperous one is shown in 
Psalm 1: 1-3: "Blessed is the man that 
walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, 
nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sit- 
teth in the seat of the scornful. But his 
delight is in the law of the Lord ; and in his 
law doth he meditate day and night. And 
he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers 
of water, that bringeth forth its fruit in its 
season; its leaf also shall not wither; and 
whatsoever he doeth shall prosper." 



118 TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY 

The writer here lays down the truth that 
the man who delights in the Bible and who 
meditates in it, both lives a correct life and 
has a prosperous one. On this particular 
point we will need only one more reference to 
the Scriptures. "Thy word have I hid in 
mine heart, that I might not sin against thee." 
(Psalm 119: 11.) 

III. A Knowledge op the Bible Keeps One 
in the Hour of Temptation. 

It will not be necessary to do more here 
than to remind the reader that when the Lord 
was assailed by his fearful temptations in the 
wilderness, he met each of the temptations by 
quoting a passage of Scripture. The Word 
of God was a sword that the devil could not 
stand against. This thought is brought out 
by Paul in the sixth chapter of Ephesians 
when he is telling the Christians how to pre- 
pare themselves for the fight against evil. 
After telling them about the various pieces of 
armor they should put on, he said : "And take 
the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of 
God" 



THE BIBLE IN PERSONAL LIFE 119 

IV. The Bible Comforts the Christian 
in His Hour of Sorrow. 

The Bible tells tlie Christian man that all 
things work together for his good. It makes 
known to him that "neither death nor life, 
nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, 
nor things present, nor things to come, nor 
height, nor depth, nor any other creature, 
shall be able to separate us from the love of 
God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." 
(Bom. 8: 38, 39.) The Bible lets him know 
that "Our light affliction, which is but for a 
moment, worketh for us a far more exceed- 
ing and eternal weight of glory." 

In the hour of the Christian's deepest sor- 
row, when he comes to give back the dust of 
his loved one to the earth whence it came, then 
the Bible has for him the only comfort that he 
can know. It tells him that the spirit of his 
loved one has gone to the God who gave it ; 
that Jesus has taken that loved one to the 
Father's house of many mansions ; that while 
the loved one cannot come back to him, he 
can go to the one he is bidding farewell. He 
knows from his Bible that that loved one rests 
from his labors, and that God wipes away all 
tears from his eyes. And then, when he, 
himself, comes to the hour of death, it is his 



120 TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY 

Bible that gives him a knowledge of the fact 
that he is himself the victor over death. It 
is then with him as it was with Sir Walter 
Scott, who, as death drew near, asked for the 
Book, the Bible. 



V. But the Bible Must Be Known and 
Practiced. 

The Bible will be of no service in the per- 
sonal life if its contents are not known. A 
simple belief that the Bible is the Word of 
God will not profit. We must know its con- 
tents. The simple possession of a Bible, its 
presence in our home, or even in our pocket, 
will not avail. But we shall not know what 
the Bible has to say to us and for us unless 
we study it. 

We should read it day by day. Bead 
it carefully and reverently. We should 
read it with the thought of its fitness for our 
lives, and with the idea of applying its teach- 
ings to our own personal needs. 

We should meditate on what we have read, 
"meditate day and night." We must hide it 
in our hearts. We must become so familiar 
with it that we can make use of it in every 
case of need that may arise. 



THE BIBLE IN PERSONAL LIFE 121 

VI. What Men Have to Say About the 

Helpfulness of the Bible in 

the Personal Life. 

"It is a Book of Laws, to show the right 

and wrong. 
It is a Book of Wisdom that makes the 

foolish wise. 
It is a Book of Truth, that detects all 

human errors. 
It is a Book of Life, that shows how to 

avoid everlasting death. 
It is the young man's best companion. 
It is the schoolboy's best instructor. 
It is the learned man's masterpiece. 
It is the ignorant man's dictionary, and 

every man's directory. 
It promises an eternal reward to the 

faithful and believing." 

Here is the recent testimony of Judge 
Fawcett, of Brooklyn, to the helpfulness of 
the Bible in the personal life, though he uses 
the word church in place of "Bible" : 

. "Approximately 2,700 cases have been 
brought before me in my five and a half years 
of service on the bench. During all that time 
I have never had to try a man who at the 



122 TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY 

time of the alleged offense was, or ever had 
been an active member of the church." 

A Chicago judge also recently testified to 
the record before him in divorce cases. His 
testimony was that rarely, almost never, were 
the parties to a divorce suit active church 
members. 

In speaking of his experience in dealing 
with boys in his court, Judge Fawcett said : 
"I have asked each young defendant if he was 
a member of, or an attendant at, Sunday 
school, and I have never been answered, 
'Yes.' " 

The Bible is a tremendous power for good 
in the personal life. 



CHAPTER XII. 



USING THE BIBLE IN CHEISTIAN 
SEBVICE. 

I. Why Do We Become Christians? 

In the minds of many people, the answer to 
this question is that we may go to heaven 
when we die. Well, that is a part of the 
answer, but only a part. We become Chris- 
tians that we may come into the right rela- 
tion with God. Also, that we may live in 
the way that is pleasing to God. But there 
is also another reason why we become Chris- 
tians, namely, that we may render service. 
"We are saved to serve" is a common saying, 
and it is a true one. "For we are his work- 
manship, created in Christ Jesus unto good 
works, which God hath before ordained that 
we should walk in them." (Eph. 2: 10.) 

Paul, you know-, called himself a bondserv- 
ant of Jesus. It is a servant's business to be 
of service. He said that he became all things 
to all men in order that he might save some. 
In the opening chapter of his letter to the 

(123) 



124 TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY 

Romans lie said : "I am debtor both to the 
Greeks and to the barbarians; both to the 
wise and to the unwise." The Saviour's idea 
about us was that we are to be of service. 
"Let your light so shine before men, that they 
may see your good works, and glorify your 
Father which is in heaven." (Matt. 5: 16.) 
"Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, bap- 
tizing them in the name of the Father, and of 
the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching 
them to observe all things whatsoever I have 
commanded you: and, lo, I am with you 
alway, even unto the end of the world." 
(Matt. 28: 19, 20.) "But ye shall receive 
power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon 
you : and ye shall be witnesses unto me both 
in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Sa- 
maria, and unto the uttermost part of the 
earth." Acts 1 : 8. 

II. The Bible is the Instrument of 
Service. 

Now, as one goes forth in Christian service, 
he will find the Bible of the greatest use to 
him. It will tell him where to serve, and 
how to serve. When Paul was writing to 
the Ephesians and giving them instructions 
about their lives, and doing so under the 



USING IT IN CHRISTIAN SERVICE 125 

figure of a soldier; after telling theia what 
to put on by way of defensive armor, he then 
said: "And the sword of the Spirit, which is 
the word of God." (Eph. 6 : 17.) 

In writing to Timothy, he said of the Bible : 
"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, 
and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for 
correction, for instruction in righteousness: 
that the man of God may be perfect, thor- 
oughly furnished unto all good works." (2 
Tim. 3: 16.) Every Christian needs the 
Bible if he would do efficient service for his 
Master. 

III. But a Christian Must Know the 
Bible. 

Paul says that the Bible is to the Christian 
what the sword is to the soldier. Now, a 
soldier would not do much with his sword, 
however good it might be, if he did not know 
how to use it. Not only would he fail to do 
much harm to his enemies, but he is liable to 
harm himself with it. So, if the Christian 
expects to use his Bible in service for Christ 
he must be familiar with it, he must know it. 
That is quite important. He must know 
when to use it. He must be familiar with 
those passages of the Bible that will meet the 
needs of the occasion as they may arise. 



126 TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY 

IV. The Field op Service Where the 

Christian Will Have Need of 

His Bible. 

Now, as the Christian goes about his duty, 
there will be more than one field of usefulness 
for his Bible. Let us see, for instance, what 
he may need to do in leading a man to he- 
come a Christian. 

(1) The first thing, likely, will be to con- 
vince the individual that he needs to be saved. 
He will, therefore, need to show him from the 
Bible that he is a sinner. He can do this by 
reading to him Psalm 51 : 5, which shows that 
one is born in sin. Or Isaiah 53 : 6, showing 
that every one has gone astray. Then Bomans 
3: 10-23 leaves no doubt about the matter. 
It proves that every one is a sinner. God 
tried to find someone who was good, but even 
he failed, "For all have sinned and come short 
of the glory of God." (V. 23.) He can also 
turn to John 3: 3-5 and see there that the 
Saviour makes it plain to Nicodemus that 
every one needs to be born again — must be, to 
see the Kingdom of God. 

(2) Then the sinner must be shown that 
there is a salvation provided for all sinners. 
He can find out about this in Bomans 3: 



USING IT IN CHRISTIAN SERVICE 127 

24-26, where Paul shows that God has pro- 
vided this salvation in the propitiation of 
Christ. 1 John 2: 2 brings out the same 
truth : "And he is the propitiation for our 
sins : and not for ours only, but also for the 
sins of the whole world." This shows that 
Jesus died for every man. John 3 : 16 is also 
along the same line. The Old Testament 
prophesied this, for in Isaiah 53 we find that 
"the Lord laid on him the iniquities of us 
all." That he "bore our griefs and carried 
our sorrows." That "with his stripes we are 
healed." 

(3) But the sinner will need to be shown 
what he must do in order that he may be 
saved. 

THE SINNER MUST REPENT. 

The importance of repentance is shown by 
the fact that John the Baptist preached that 
all must repent. Jesus taught (Luke 13: 
1-5) that no one was exempted. Paul told 
the Athenians (Acts 17: 30) that now God 
"commands all men everywhere to repent." 
He shows (Acts 20: 21) that he always 
preached "repentance toward God and faith 
toward our Lord Jesus Christ." Every one 
needs to repent because he is a sinner. 



128 TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY 

THE SINNER MUST HAVE FAITH. 

Not only must the sinner repent, but he 
must have a personal faith in the Lord Jesus 
Christ. "Kepentance toward God, and faith 
in the Lord Jesus Christ." (Acts 20: 21.) 
John 3 : 14, 15, 16, 36 all show the necessity 
of faith. Eom. 1 : 16 brings out the fact that 
salvation may be had by anyone who believes. 
When the Philippian jailer asked Paul what 
he must do in order to be saved, Paul said : 
"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou 
shalt be saved." (Acts 16: 31.) In Ephe- 
sians 2 : 8 Paul shows that it is by faith and 
not by works that the sinner Is saved. 
Eomans 5:1: "Therefore, being justified by 
faith we have peace with God." What the 
repentant sinner needs to do is to exercise a 
personal faith in Jesus Christ. This means 
the surrender of himself to Jesus, both as 
Saviour and Lord. 

AFTER THE SINNER SURRENDERS TO JESUS. 

There is the need of confession. "Whoso- 
ever, therefore, shall confess me before men, 
him will I also confess before my Father 
which is in heaven. But whosoever shall 
deny me before men, him will I also deny be- 



USING IT IN CHRISTIAN SERVICE 129 

fore my Father which is in heaven." (Matt. 
10: 32; 33.) This makes plain the necessity 
of confessing Christ. On this same thought 
Jesus taught : "Whosoever, therefore, shall be 
ashamed of me and of my words in this sinful 
and adulterous generation ; of him also shall 
the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh 
in the glory of his Father with the holy 
angels." (Mark 8: 38.) Paul has some- 
thing to say on the importance of confessing 
Christ. "For with the heart man believeth 
unto righteousness ; and with the mouth con- 
fession is made unto salvation." (Eom. 
10: 10.) 

There is the duty of Baptism. Baptism is 
a duty that is commanded. Not in order to 
be saved, for the Bible makes it plain that it 
is faith alone that links one to Jesus 
Christ to the saving of his soul. The Bible 
makes it plain that those who believed were 
baptized. This is shown by Acts 2:41; in the 
case of the eunuch (Acts 8: 36-38) ; by that 
of Cornelius (Acts 10: 47, 48) ; also in the 
case of Lydia (Acts 16: 14, 15) ; and of the 
Philippian jailer (16: 31-33); and many 
others. The above references show that the 
only ones who were baptized were those who 
believed. Therefore, infants are not the 



130 TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY 

proper subjects of baptism. The Bible is 
also plain on what act is necessary to bap- 
tism. It is immersion and immersion only. 
See Eomans 6: 3^ 4; the occasion of Jesus' 
own baptism (Mark 1 : 9-11) , and that of the 
eunuch (Acts 18: 36-38). 

BUT THE CHRISTIAN WORKER CAN RENDER 

SERVICE IN TEACHING OTHERS THEIR 

DUTY TO THE CHURCH. 

(1) In the regularity of their attendance 
on the services of the church. Hebrews 10 : 
25 leaves no doubt on this point. Jesus was 
accustomed to go into the synagogue on the 
Sabbath day. (Luke 4: 16.) 

(2) How the members of the church are to 
live and act and feel toward each other is 
brought out in Philippians 2: 1-4. The 
necessity for working together in harmony 
is shown in 1 Corinthians 1 : 10 ? 11. 

(3) The importance of the church is evi- 
denced when Paul says that it is the "pillar 
and ground of the truth." (1 Tim. 3 : 15.) 

(4) The Necessity of Contributing to the 
Church. — Paul says this should be done every 
Sunday and in proportion to one's means. 
(1 Cor. 16: 1, 2.) This truth comes to us 
out of the Old Testament also. In Proverbs 
3 : 9 we are told to "honor the Lord with our 



USING IT IN CHRISTIAN SERVICE 131 

substance and with the first fruits of all thine 
increase." In Malachi 3: 8-10 we are told 
that God accuses the people of robbing him 
because they have not brought a tenth of 
their goods into his storehouse. And this 
tenth was for maintaining the worship of 
God. 

BRINGING BACK THE WANDERING. 

There is another service that the Christian 
can render, and that is to help in the matter 
of those who have done wrong. His Bible 
will help him greatly here. Sometimes one 
member of the church acts in an unchristian- 
like manner toward another. Jesus tells how 
to proceed in such a case. In Matthew 18 : 
15-17, he shows that the one who is offended 
should go to the offender, and that he should 
exhaust every means to have the trouble set- 
tled. This, of course, must be done in a 
Christ-like spirit. Then there come times 
when a church member is led away into sin. 
Now, the strong Christians owe it to this 
brother to try to recover him from his erring 
ways and restore him to his former way. 
Galatians 6 : 1 shows that this should be done 
by the very best members in the church, and 
that they should go about it with prayerful 



132 TRAINING IN BIBLE STUDY 

hearts and minds, for they themselves are in 
danger of being tempted. 

MINISTERING TO THE SORROWING. 

Then there is a field of service for the serv- 
ant of Jesus Christ in ministering to the sor- 
rowing and bereaved. He will find his Bible 
far better than anything else. Words from 
the Bible are far more comforting than any 
words that he may speak. In such times let 
the worker read the twenty-third, ninety-first 
or one hundred and third Psalm. The four- 
teenth chapter of John brings peace to the 
mind and heart. The story of Jesus' sym- 
pathy with Mary and Martha (John 11: 
20-35) may be used with profit. In the 
eighth chapter of Bomans there are several 
passages that will bring comfort. Note 
verses 26, 27, 28, 35-39. 

In the case of the loss of a loved one by 
death, the fifteenth chapter of First Corinthi- 
ans shows the Christian's triumph over death 
and the grave. Second Corinthians 5: 1-8 
is also quite good. The book of Bevelation 
is a store-house of comfort for the sorrowing. 
Such passages as 7 : 13-17 ; 14 : 13 ; chapters 
21 and 22, are helpful. 

Yes, let the Christian study his Bible and 
then go forth to a rich service to God and his 
fellows. 



OCT 14 1912 






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